toldailytopic: What do you think of the Social Security program?

Nathon Detroit

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for March 20th, 2012 09:17 AM


toldailytopic: What do you think of the Social Security program?






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some other dude

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The more I read about the government controls and overreaching started by FDR, the more I'm convinced he had communist leanings.
 

Nathon Detroit

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The future aint looking too good.

295451_10150642053324733_15503839732_8470469_1998168945_n.jpg
 

vegascowboy

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for March 20th, 2012 09:17 AM


toldailytopic: What do you think of the Social Security program?


SOCIAL SECURITY = A firearm in a responsible and well-trained person's hands.
 

ebenz47037

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If any person were to do the same thing as our government has done with social security, it would be a crime.
 

YahuShuan

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for March 20th, 2012 09:17 AM


toldailytopic: What do you think of the Social Security program?






Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
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I want my money back! "It's my money, and I want it now!"
 

Sherman

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It might have been a good thing at one time, but now it is broken. It needs a serious overhaul.
 
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PureX

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Social Security was a great idea that worked very well for a long time. And it would still be working just fine, except that the politicians decided to rob the till. They promised to pay it all back, but didn't, and when they got away with it the first time, of course robbed it again, and again, and again.

Now they tell us that it's costing us too much money, so they want us to pay more, and pay longer, or stop it all together. But they don't tell us that the reason it's out of money is because they stole it all. And like the morons that most of us are, we believe their lies and excuses. We believe that it's our fault that we can't have a national retirement or public aid system that works for everyone. Just like we believe that we can't have a national health care system that works for everyone. That, too, is a lie.

The bottom line is this: we instituted a national retirement/public aid program because we didn't want to treat each other like some third-world backwater plutocracy that allows their old people and children and the sick to die in the streets and live under bridges. And we knew that this is what would happen if we were not willing to set up some way of making sure everyone got the basic necessities of life.

Many of us can work and save and take care of ourselves. But some of us can't. Misfortune happens. People get old and feeble, they get sick, they go crazy, they suffer setbacks that they can't overcome. So we set up a program that has everyone who is working pay into it, and when they become unable to work, they can then draw money out of it to live on. And because most of us can pay in, and some of us will die before collecting any of that money back, there was enough of a surplus to cover those few who couldn't pay in but still needed help.

It was a great idea, and it worked really well for many years.

But unfortunately, as I said, the politicians decided to steal the money, and like idiots we allowed them to. So now the fund is going broke, and they are lying to us about why. They are telling us that it's because we think we deserve help that we don't deserve. They're telling us that it's because too many of us are getting old and not dying. They're telling us that our neighbors are cheating the system, and stealing from us. But the truth is that they stole the money, themselves. They squandered it and promised to pay it back and they never did.

All we need to do to fix the system is force the government to pay back what they stole, and then keep them from robbing the till again. But of course they squandered the money, so paying the money back means that WE have to replace what they stole. And of course we don't like having to do that. The sad truth is that a lot of us really don't care if our neighbors die in the streets or live under bridges, anymore. We are no longer the kind of people and society that we once were, when we instituted the Social Security program. So there are a lot of us, now, who want to go along with the politician's lies because we don't want to have to pay back all the money they stole, and we think we'll be able to take care of ourselves without it. So screw everyone else. We're an "every man for himself" kind of place, now days.

We once were a great nation, and a great and compassionate people. Now we're just a bunch of losers, liars, thieves, and selfish morons.



It's a very sad story, really.

relative link here
 
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rexlunae

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The future aint looking too good.

That graph looks a little suspect, since it basically projects shrinking deficits for the next couple of years and then a massive turn-around into deficit growth. But even if it's close to right, and it grows to a deficit of 1.5% of GDP, it seems like we could correct that with a small FICA tax hike.

Ah, but then we run into Grover Norquist's pledge that so many of our politicians have signed. I guess we're just doomed.

BTW, I found the full article for that graph here:
http://pgpf.org/Issues/Fiscal-Outlook/2011/06/The-Financial-Condition-of-Social-Security.aspx
 

rocketman

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for March 20th, 2012 09:17 AM

toldailytopic: What do you think of the Social Security program?


Forced participation for a government pyramid/ponzi scheme which I will never see a proper return on my investment. Thievery...:plain:
 

rexlunae

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Social Security was a great idea that worked very well for a long time. And it would still be working just fine, except that the politicians decided to rob the till. They promised to pay it all back, but didn't, and when they got away with it the first time, of course robbed it again, and again, and again.

That's not actually true.

The Social Security System, from the very first day, has been a pipe from current workers to current beneficiaries. That is, the people who are working and paying the tax now pay the benefits to the people who are collecting now. That's how it was supposed to work. There was never a personal account that you save money to. It's a defined benefit system.

There is, however, a trust fund, which is basically just a place where the government receives funds paid in before paying them out again. At times, when the fund is running a surplus, the fund grows. When this happens, the trust fund buys up US Treasury securities (by law they must invest in US-federal-backed securities), thus lending the money to the general budget, which is perhaps the safest form of investment in the world, in that it is guaranteed by the US government. These amounts have always been repaid, and this type of lending is done in lieu of federal lending to private individuals, organizations, and foreign governments, thus saving money for us overall.

The reason we're looking at a possible shortfall is simply that we've got more people retiring and living longer, so they need more funds to receive the promised benefits. This should be a simple matter of adjusting our planning accordingly, however there are a large number of Congresspeople, mostly Republicans, who won't consider raising taxes, due to the no tax pledge and similar thinking. Thus we're in a bit of a bind legislatively, and unless we elect some more reasonable representatives, we're just going to wait for the system to go bust.
 

Angel4Truth

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Its a joke. Thats what i think about it.

By the time my husband or I could draw anything from it, there wont be anything to draw. Its been stolen from by Washington and by fraudsters so much that its bust pretty much.
 

Sherman

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Social security as it exists today is basically a ponzi scheme. In short a ponzi scheme is an operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors instead from profit earned by the individual worker or company running the operation. If any individual of company ran such a scheme they would pay heavy fines or end up in the slammer. The government has been pulling one over on us for years!

Social security should be revamped into something where the monies that a person pays into the system, they get back as social security.
 

rexlunae

New member
Social security as it exists today is basically a ponzi scheme.

That's not true. A Ponzi scheme involves producing fictitious returns by expanding the investment base, so that a small number of investors can cash out, but the amounts owed can never be paid in full. It fails because the amounts supposedly owed to investors increase while the amount available only increases by adding new investors. There is nothing comparable to that in the Social Security System.

You can point to one similarity or another, but the math that dooms a Ponzi scheme doesn't apply to SS.

Social security should be revamped into something where the monies that a person pays into the system, they get back as social security.

If we do that, who pays the benefits that current retirees are owed?
 

Angel4Truth

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If we do that, who pays the benefits that current retirees are owed?

We do like we do now. Or they can just ignore it, much like corporations today just end peoples retirement benefits when they no longer wish to pay them.

Happens everyday.
 
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