Well said Riley.  What do you suppose the “pubs” reaction would be if “we the people” demanded that all of the money borrowed from OUR fund (including interest due) be returned immediately?

What would the “pubs” do.  The same thing the “crats” woudl do.  The problem with social security is the money that came out of your last paycheck went to cover the paycheck that went do someone that was retired.  If you wanted your money back there is no way to do it because it is not there.  With an employer retirement fund, money is deducted from your account and invested and if for some reason you needed it you could easily access it (with some penalty fo early withdrawal).  With baby boomers retiring over the next couple of decades we are in the situation where more people will be leaving the work force to collect social securitythen entering the work force as adults and starting to pay into social security.  The impact is that there will be fewer people paying social security each paycheck to cover the payments that are going to more people.  Eventually you have two options, pay less to retirees (in some way that is deemed “fair”) or have those that work pay more.  I agree with Riley that calling it an entitlement is bad semantics and hinders the argument, but it is clear that at some point we are going to have to change the rules to the game.  We can do that now so people know well in advance or we can wait until later and make a last minute change.  Given the political situation in Washington DC it is clear that is going to be done at the last minute, which wil cause far more problems then letting people know well in advance.  Fortunately, most people realize the social security is not going to be there in a couple of decades and therefore are becoming more prepared now.

It is the same issue with the debt and deficit.  We can fix the problems now or we can wait and become like Greece and fix the problems at the last minute when there is no choice but to fix it.  Either way, the government has overcommitted and will have to decommitt on a lot of promises, it is just a case of whether you do it now or later.

Jack O. Petree says:

Some years ago I wrote a “community column” for the Herald…The second most disliked column I wrote pointed out that the gov’mint was promoting IRAs at the time saying, “invest $2000 per year for 40 years in an IRA and you will retire with more than $1 million.” 

At the same time, I pointed out, the IRS was taking a lot more than that amount from me each year in social security taxes so that, on retirement, I could be given a thousand buck a month or so.

A tramatic week for me… I just signed up to begin drawing social security…

Riley… you just got married… quick, have some kids so someone will be stuck with paying for me down the line!!!

To quote Roger Miller:

Ya dad gummed g’vmint, ya lousy so and sos…

Ya got your filthy hands in every pocket of my clothes…

Ya dad gummed g’vmint… ya dad gummed g’vmint…ya dad gummed g’vmint…

Riley: Honey?
Bryna: Yeah?
Riley: We need to start having babies, RIGHT NOW!
Bryna: What?
Riley: Jack Petree told me we had to.
Bryna: Okay, time to step away from the keyboard.
Riley: No, you don’t understand. For social security reasons.
Bryna: That’s it. No more blogging for you mister.
Riley: But but but . . . the debt ceiling and . . . money in and money out and stuff. Reproduce woman! Why aren’t your ovaries ticking yet?
Bryna: I’m taking the laptop now.
Riley: Fine . . .

Here is the problem though, as someone who is currently paying into social security right now, but knows that he doesn’t have a very high chance of return on investment. Even if social security is around it won’t be equal to the benefit payoff that my payment is currently going to.
So here is my question of economic equality, why am i required by law to pay into a system that I will never see the benefit so that I can pay for the mistakes of the generation that will actually be collecting “my” social security payment?

Jack O. Petree says,

Riley and Devlin,

Enough about your problems, let’s talk about mine.

September 17th, a day that will live in infamy, I turn into a LIBERAL…

I’ll wake up that morning screeching, “I want my Cost Of Living Allowance!  Mr. Congressman.  Cutting Medicare?  What were you thinking?  Cross me and I’ll be after you like a rabid dog…AARP, AARP, AARP, AARP…”

Later in the day I’ll call Joe’s show.  “I agree with you Joe, but you don’t go far enough.  I say triple the deficit… I need more money.  Riley and Devlin will pay for it, at least if Bryna gives Riley his laptop back so he can get to work.

The day will have some up sides though.  I’ll have morphed into a liberal but I’ll still be just as cantankerous so it will be a joy to look into Joe’s eyes, and yours for that matter, and see the terror when you realize that now, I am one of you.

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

By the way, Riley, I told Clayton to shoot you an e-mail but they all bounce back.  He asked me to ask you to send him one.

Hi Jack,

Yes, my parents acted the same way.  They always complained, until they signed up, and then suddenly it was “how much am I getting?”  As for private pension benefits, the only people who make money off of those are the stock holders.  No thanks.  As long as times are good, of course.  Because they will never be bad.  If they are, someone else owes you.  Remember all those people who were blessed to have their pensions invested with Bernard Madoff?  That situation was absolutely deplorable, but some of the same “hands off” people (the same individuals- this has been documented by scores of authors and journalists) were the first to be furious with the GOVERNMENT for not having done enough to prevent it when the entire thing was exposed as fraud.  Enough said to that one for me.  I will never see Social Security, and get as crabby as everyone else when it is taken out of my check, but no way do I want some slick financial advisor telling me what to do with my money.  The last one who really kept bothering me, until I told her not too kindly to leave me alone was from Countrywide.  (I never knew they planned retirements, but evidentially they could and did LOTS of things besides mortgages, and many creative ones of those.)  Interestingly enough, I did one of my undergraduate papers on The Great Society Programs, and examined them 35 years later, like Medicare and Medicaid.  More people are on them, so statistically they didn’t work.  More people are actually out of poverty, but the goal was to erradicate poverty within 30 years, which of course didn’t work, but then, realistically, how could it? Therefore, my take, Riley:  Entitlement programs need a lot of work, and aren’t sustainable, but they are the lesser of all evils, simply because the others will be so abused abruptly and immediately that the vulnerable and uninformed will be left in poverty anyway, and the government will have to take care of them, or they will starve to death, and seniors and poor people starving to death in the street and/or eating pet food doesn’t sound too great to me.  Don’t laugh, I can just see the daytime T.V. “invest with me,” or “invest your retirement dollars/entitlement dollars here, our number is toll-free, there is no introductory cost, and you will have millions in your golden years” cue commercial with sailboat. Entitlement reform is just a smoke-screen for other real problems.

There is no such thing as “Government Insurance” when you use money forcibly taken from someone else to pay for someone else’s ‘insurance’.

What really bothers me is not having a choice. I would rather take my money and invest it into something else. I know many many people who live off of “entitlements” who have not paid much into it. Why should I be forced pay for someone else elderly parents or disabled children? Personal responsibility will come back one way or the other. Either because the system will get reformed or because it will eventually get so large that like the Soviet Union and most other forms of Socialism and Communism it will collapse under the weight of it’s “obligations”. Id rather not collapse our country and reform it now.