Social Security Is A Doomed Social Program That We Are Throwing Away Our Money Into

in #life8 years ago

Social Security Is A Doomed Social Program That We Are Throwing Away Our Money Into

Its no surprise that within the next 30 or so years, social security in the US will fail. Unless some revolutionary new system is put into action, social security wont have enough money to support new recipients. So if you are 32 or under this post is specifically for you. Social security was a noble idea that came to fruition when life expediencies were not nearly as high and our public debt was much lower. Even now with the debt we need to pay back, our government is struggling to keep up payments. Sure they can just print the money, but this leads to a whole new problem that I wont go into in this post. Social security makes up a very large chunk of the government’s expenditures and where much of your tax dollars go. If the age to take advantage of social security isn’t severely raised or unless we cut expenditures elsewhere, the government will become overwhelmed.

However, even though most financial people realize that social security isn’t going to last, the younger generation still is required to pay into it every paycheck. We are essentially giving away our hard earned money to the government for a system that advertises itself as an investment, but in reality it is a toxic investment we will never see. Why should we pay into an investment we will never see , especially to a group of generations that have voted again and again to pass the debt burden down the line. We are the generation that years of debt consolidation will finally be dropped upon. I truly believe that we will be the generation that finally has to pay the piper.

Before you write this off as just another bitching millennial post, hear me out. The debt our country has taken on was not created in a night, it was created over a period of decades. Every time a politician has preached austerity and cutting the budget to lower the deficit, they weren’t taken seriously. No one running on the ideology of cutting social programs in the short term for long term prosperity is ever going to win because people only care about the short term and pushing the problems down the line. People are always won over by false promises of what benefits they could get out of an election until its too late and extreme austerity has to take place. Sure we could print our way out of the situation we are in, but that would just lead to a whole new level of problems. The social security generations pushed endless amount of debts onto somebody else and now it fall upon us.

The social security generations cared only about themselves in the short term and left our generations with the check. We are now paying for the mistakes they made, while also paying for their economic well being in one of the worst US job markets since the great depression. Because of the 2008 financial crisis , less people can afford to retire which leaves less job openings for newly graduating college students entering the job market. People joke about graduating college and working for McDonalds, but this has actually become a reality. The increase in college prices has pushed loans up to levels that can be paid off without a 9-5 job so people are forced to take 2 minimum wage jobs just to survive. In addition the loss of investment funds which many were going to use to pay off their children’s tuition was destroyed in the financial crisis as well. We are feeling direct results of pushing responsibility down the line and I fully believe that in the next 20 years we will see the college loan bubble pop and pull many down with it.

When the college loan bubble does pop, many are going to get dragged under, then who will bail our generation out ?There was a large precedent set for passing debt down the line it was not by our generation. I don’t want to blame everything on the social security generation because they did add to making America rich and prosperous, but I also don’t want to let them off the hook. My generation is as much to blame as well, because nothing seems to change. The youth are still voting to increase spending and provide more social programs, which we can’t pay for. We need to start realizing the trouble we are in if we continue down this dangerous path, however I don’t have much faith, which is why I think the loan bubble is going to pop.

There is a major hypocrisy going on today where people will complain about Netflix charging $3 more per month on subscription fees, but could care less about paying for social programs we will never see. Every year hundreds if not thousands of dollars are being siphoned from our paychecks directly for social security, something we believe to be an investment in our future, but we will never see. It is everyone’s fault for sitting by idly and watching as our debt has continued to pile, yet we do nothing to elect people that will actually take much needed actions even if they might momentarily hurt the economy. I know im not the only one in my generation that feels this way. Those who are part of the social security generations and will most likely receive some social security, how do you feel about this?

-Calaber24p

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What is your solution? Because I´m an anarchist, but before we have something better than the current system actually working, we need to pay taxes. Otherwise hospitals and schools will get shut down, people will starve,and chaos will ensue.

There simply is no way to fix the system. There is enourmous wealth being produced, but it all stays on top. Capitalism is fundamentally broken. And by capitalism I mean our standard neo-liberal economy, which has the ruling elite supported by the governments.
Social security is a way to patch things up, a little bit. It´s not working too well, but removing it will be disaster.
A universal basic income would be a step in the right direction though, and it would greatly stimulate the economy.
It will be necessary, as we are approaching a situation with massive technological unemployment, caused by the same techologies which has the potential to liberate us from wage slavery.
In the long run, however,capitalism will have to be replaced by a commons based, post scarcity society, using robotics, A.I , additive manufactoring, etc.
Production for use, not for profit.
Otherwise, society will collapse, and the environment, and we will all be cooked.

Literally.

I think we should pay taxes but we should force politicians to actually have a plan to revise social security so it lasts. Raise the age announce it 10 years in advance so people know. Literally do anything than just pretend it will continue going on.

Well, the problem is that the means tested benefits are very ineffective. THe rules are complicated, and not very fair. A lot of people are living beneathe the poverty line, but get nothing. Some people game the system.
THere is little incentive to take a part time or low income job, because you lose money, but for many people without higher education, this is the only option. Getting a college degree is too expensive for big parts of the population.
So we need a UBI, and we need it now. And free education.

Maybe I am misunderstanding you, are you suggesting we follow in the steps of Greece or something?

Please first tell me what following in the footsteps of Greece would mean. If you want to know what happened in Greece, watch this video:

I'll have to watch that here sometime this week.

My comment was mostly poking at the "socialism" aspect

It will be necessary, as we are approaching a situation with massive technological unemployment, caused by the same techologies which has the potential to liberate us from wage slavery.
In the long run, however,capitalism will have to be replaced by a commons based, post scarcity society, using robotics, A.I , additive manufactoring, etc.
Production for use, not for profit.
Otherwise, society will collapse, and the environment, and we will all be cooked.

We don't need to worry about that, greed and religion will get us all "cooked" long before it comes to that :)

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Not counting on Social Security to bail me out when I am ready to retire in 10 years...lol

Up voted and followed.

yeah, its not much and no one should rely on it , but many people in our country do sadly.

Your government should expend "less" money (or no money at all, better) of this billions of dollars they invest in wars and armament industry, then it will have a enough money to pay for older generations for a long time.... and much more.

Well, a good start for rebuilding the SS coffers would be for the god damn government to put back in what they have stolen starting way back with the Reagan years.

This problem is not only in the United States, not pear ca paise centers in Argetina will collapse, excellent post congratulations and thanks for sharing

Very good post!

The money given to social security goes to people who receive it. It is one of the least destructive programs the government has because it is given back to the people. It is doomed to fail, but then again, so is the monetary system and the idea of a 'limited constitutional republic'.

I kick myself in the ass occasionally for not starting a self directed health care program. At 1500 per month in health care over the last 10 years, if it were in gold, I would not worry about many illnesses. And with great quality and affordable alternative health methods in Mexico the Gold would go so much further that most issues would be taken care of... and if I did not need it, a nice fund would have been the outcome.

I have not made this mistake with Social Security.

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