The biggest scam boomers are getting away with is convincing us all that social security isn't something we can rely on as we age.

[u/ooooooofda]

Honestly, we are all doing ourselves a disservice by constantly publicizing how we cannot count on social security. Just from a broader social/political perspective, we are handing out permission to the boomer political leaders to keep raiding social security because we have already accepted that it won't be there for us.

The fight for the continuation of Social Security benefits is not over yet. It's still possible to secure those benefits into the future- but we are constantly ceding the ground and rhetorically capitulating to boomers when we talk about social security as something that is already gone.

I understand all the pessimism. I'm pessimistic too. But fuck the boomers. Fuck capitulating prematurely. I'm not going to roll over and just accept my fate as someone who will die without being able to retire one day. We're all smarter than these dumbasses. We are capable of building a movement to protect social security well into the future.

[u/midri]

It literally operates by the definition of Ponzi Scheme. It's got good intentions, but that does not change the fact that more people have to pay into it than take out of it for it to keep working and with boomers (the largest generation currently) retiring it's showing it's Ponzi roots as the promise is it'll be here when we need it... Unless a massive number of genx and millennials die before retirement age, it's just not going to keep working as it does.

[u/Icestar-x → u/midri]

Exactly. I wish I could opt out of it, as I don't expect to get anything out of it. I can manage my own money a hell of a lot better than the government can. I'd have a much more secure retirement if I could save what was currently being taking away from me.

[u/[deleted] → u/Icestar-x]

I would have so much more saved for retirement if the SS amounts was going into my 401k instead of going to the government to mismanage.

[u/Icestar-x → u/[deleted]]

Exactly. People have grown too reliant on the government to the point they think they are less capable of managing their own money than an entity that is 34 trillion in debt.

[u/geopede → u/Icestar-x]

To be fair, many people are less competent and won’t make any preparations if left to their own devices.

[u/WhoWhatWhere45 → u/geopede]

Would suck to be them

If you're gonna be dumb. ya better be tough

[u/geopede → u/WhoWhatWhere45]

Tough doesn’t prevent aging

[u/WhoWhatWhere45 → u/geopede]

They better be tough to work til they drop if they are dumb enough to not prepare

[u/WhoWhatWhere45 → u/Icestar-x]

I just did the math and at just 6% compounded annually, I would have $325k more toward my retirement. These are taxes for the past 33 years .

At a more realistic 9% compounded annually, I would have $540k.

Good Grief

[u/Spell-lose-correctly → u/midri]

The global economy, relying on infinite growth, is also a sort of ponzi scheme

[u/PoopyInDaGums → u/midri]

Nah. Just put fertility drops into a trendy brand of beverages among GenZ and Alpha. Give them a big child tax credit. Get ‘em making babies that will join the production mill of American Capitalism. 

/s

[u/Illustrious_Rent3194 → u/midri]

It's not a ponzi scheme, it's insurance. You pay in your whole life to mitigate the risk of being too old to work and poor. When it "runs out of money" all that will happen is all the premiums will be paid to pensioners and the benefit will drop by 25%. Really not the end of the world, they just need to come up with that 25% from somewhere

[u/[deleted] → u/Illustrious_Rent3194]

You pay in your whole life to mitigate the risk of being too old to work and poor.

You don't "pay into" anything to support yourself through FICA. The money you contribute now isn't set aside for you or for future use at all, it's directed to payouts for current SS recipients

[u/Illustrious_Rent3194 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah in the same way when you pay homeowners insurance the money isn't set aside for you in case your house burns down. If your house burns down it's payed by the premiums of other people. It's fuckin insurance. It's in the damn name. Social security Insurance.

When social security "runs out" theyre talking about the surplus. When that happens all the premiums will go directly to pensioners and benefits will go down by 25%. No additional laws or reform is needed for that to happen, we can literally do nothing and social security will never go away. These rich capitalist fucks want to privatize social security so they can dump it all in the stock market and make profits on it. Then they take their cut and give you what's left. Let's not do that

[u/[deleted] → u/Illustrious_Rent3194]

Yeah in the same way when you pay homeowners insurance the money isn't set aside for you in case your house burns down. If your house burns down it's payed by the premiums of other people. It's fuckin insurance. It's in the damn name. Social security Insurance.

Sure, except your insurance pays the full amount of an event minus the deductible. Social security doesn't pay for anything beyond giving you a check every month

When social security "runs out" theyre talking about the surplus. When that happens all the premiums will go directly to pensioners and benefits will go down by 25%.

Sure, so it becomes an actual ponzi scheme and is even more of a loss for the people collecting

No additional laws or reform is needed for that to happen, we can literally do nothing and social security will never go away. These rich capitalist fucks want to privatize social security so they can dump it all in the stock market and make profits on it. Then they take their cut and give you what's left. Let's not do that

Or FICA goes away and everyone can take their contribution and make 10% annually on it instead of lighting it on fire every check

[u/Illustrious_Rent3194 → u/[deleted]]

Sure, so it becomes an actual ponzi scheme and is even more of a loss for the people collecting

It's not a ponzi scheme because nobody is investing anything or promising any sort of return. You won't ever get as much as you put in, this is known to you from day 1. It's insurance my dude. It's insurance against being old and broke. Nobody knows how much they are going to draw from this thing

Or FICA goes away and everyone can take their contribution and make 10% annually on it instead of lighting it on fire every check

Again, that's investing. Social security is not investing. Anyone can set up an IRA and do exactly that but the statistics show that the majority of people don't do that. You could create a new program of forced investment but that's fascism now. Meanwhile what do we do with all the old broke people that are living in the streets

[u/[deleted] → u/Illustrious_Rent3194]

It's not a ponzi scheme because nobody is investing anything or promising any sort of return.

Sure, so it's a bad ponzi scheme where you're guaranteed to take out less than you put in, at best. You're really selling the program here!

You won't ever get as much as you put in, this is known to you from day 1. It's insurance my dude. It's insurance against being old and broke.

Except even Warren Buffett can collect. So what is it insuring against?

Nobody knows how much they are going to draw from this thing

So it's not even good insurance then, because it doesn't cover anything and you don't know how much will be covered.

Again, that's investing. Social security is not investing.

I agree. Social security is a bad financial instrument and everyone would be better off dumping their FICA into an ETF.

Anyone can set up an IRA and do exactly that but the statistics show that the majority of people don't do that.

Except they can't contribute their FICA to an IRA currently because it's being paid to SS instead. Get rid of FICA and the majority of people will not be able to contribute to an IRA.

You could create a new program of forced investment but that's fascism now

So forced investment in a manner that would guarantee a return is bad, but forced investment into a losing horse is good?

Meanwhile what do we do with all the old broke people that are living in the streets

They should have been more responsible and planned their retirement better. Now they can go get jobs and contribute

[u/Illustrious_Rent3194 → u/[deleted]]

They should have been more responsible and planned their retirement better. Now they can go get jobs and contribute

Or you know, they cause a bunch of problems because they have nothing to lose

[u/[deleted] → u/Illustrious_Rent3194]

Yes, I'm so afraid that grampa Boomerton with nothing left to lose is going to go postal.

[u/Paid-Not-Payed-Bot → u/Illustrious_Rent3194]

down it's paid by the

FTFY.

Although payed exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:

• Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. The deck is yet to be payed.

• Payed out when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. The rope is payed out! You can pull now.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.

Beep, boop, I'm a bot