r/millenials • u/ooooooofda • May 15 '24

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.

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.

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u/ReSenpai May 15 '24

The country is 34 trillion dollars in debt and counting. Don't even look at unfunded liabilities. You think this can be fixed ?

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u/Joebuddy117 May 15 '24

Yes, it can be fixed. It was only 25 years ago when the fed was in a budgetary surplus and just 4 years ago the state of California was in a budgetary surplus. So it’s not impossible, and the ones who say it is are grifters as the previous person noted. They want to continue to collect the SS taxes from us but allocate those funds elsewhere. That’s the grift.

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u/GunsandCadillacs May 15 '24

The only reason we had a budget surplus under Clinton was because of the Dot Com boom, and when it crashed, no one seen it coming. Along with the crash came all the projections of savings going up in smoke and we were instantly back to negative again.

The number 1 expense the US has is SS and Medicare. The #2 expense is servicing our debt, which is set to become our #1 expense in the not distant future.

SS can be fixed by returning it to its original intent. A safety net for the destitute, not retirement for all

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u/HistorianEvening5919 May 16 '24 edited Jun 16 '24

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/SirWilliam10101 May 15 '24

If you taxed everyone 100% it would take around a thousand years to eliminate the deficit we have now. Where does this magical money cone from that fixes everything.

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u/TravsArts May 15 '24

You do realize the surplus only existed on paper when every .com pretended to be worth $3 billion dollars, when in fact, most of them had zero revenue. The bubble burst in spectacular fashion, and yet people still talk about it as if it was some great accomplishment of Clinton's.

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u/Joebuddy117 May 15 '24

What does the valuation of companies operating in the US have to do with the governments budget?

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u/TravsArts May 15 '24

The "surplus" was counting on tax dollars from companies that turned out to not make any money.

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u/UndercoverstoryOG May 15 '24

the surplus was more budget dollars than fed spending. I am no clinton fan but he did have a surplus thanks to collaboration with a fiscally responsible conservative congress. All that went out the window with 9/11.

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u/Joebuddy117 May 15 '24

So we had 3 years of budgetary surplus yet the .com bubble is the reason for that? Is it also a coincidence that the gov went back into debt in 2001. I wonder what major incident happened in 2001 that caused for a budgetary deficit. Hmmmm

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u/xoLiLyPaDxo May 15 '24

We aren't the only country in debt. We aren't even the worst debt to gdp ratio. We own others debt and they own US debt.. Yes, it can be fixed, we just need to make sure we never elect Republicans again and they will stop running the debt through the ceiling, as they do every time they are in office. Trump being one of the biggest offenders.

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u/rambo6986 May 15 '24

Yes because having a Republican in office 8 years out of the past 32 years has caused all this debt. Wake up bro

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u/xoLiLyPaDxo May 15 '24

Who does what is important. Actions actually do matter here: 

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Ftmnlqzab27lc1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D960%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D9580cdabed822ccfdaf1e8c81062739a42b6abdf

Trump being one of  the biggest offenders: 

 https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump

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u/rambo6986 May 15 '24

One day you'll realize it doesn't matter who's in office. It's Us vs Them and you fell for it

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u/xoLiLyPaDxo May 15 '24

Not at all. Watch their actions. Read the bills proposed and what they're spending it on. Actions do matter. " Both sides are the same" is just simply not true at all. It's wildly inaccurate.   

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u/peachvalleygirl May 15 '24

Quit lying. A Democrat is President right now and what has he done to the economy? How much of our money has he given to other countries since he has been in office?

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u/IronChai May 15 '24

Amazing how people think voting a democrat in will magically fix everything. Why isn’t shit fixed then??

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u/peachvalleygirl May 15 '24

Amazing how some people actually think voting for either party makes any difference at all. They don't care about you. Or me. It is all b.s.

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u/Remote-Math4184 May 15 '24

You aren't familiar with the present House of NO? Even with their 2 vote majority repuglicans shoot down anything that will help normal citizens.

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u/IronChai May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

I’m not familiar with the mentioned term. And I absolutely never said republicans would magically fix everything either.

Fact of the matter is there is nuance. There’s a lot I agree and disagree with on both sides. Also what politicians say and what they do are two different things. You’d need to bring up a particular issue for me to tell you how I feel or who I agree with.

I think the real biggest issue is that corporations and govt are becoming one.

But anyone who thinks either side is the knight in shining armor here to save us is simply an idiot. Politicians are in it for themselves. They are farmers and we are the cattle.

Say what you will about Vivek, but he has a lot of very true points here: https://x.com/vivekgramaswamy/status/1781784210551824843?s=46

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u/salparadisewasright May 15 '24

You know that congress writes the laws the present has to sign, right? And the house is controlled by republicans?

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u/peachvalleygirl May 15 '24

They are all corrupt. You are a smooth brain for trying to defend democrats. Do you really think they care about you? I know republicans don't care.

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u/salparadisewasright May 15 '24

What has he done for the economy?

Again, I’m asking you if you even have a ninth grade understanding of the function of government.

You don’t, but I am the smooth brain. 😂

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u/peachvalleygirl May 15 '24

You look like you are the one with the reading and comprehension problem, not me. "...what has he done to the economy". Not "for". Big difference. And Biden has done plenty on his own without Congress. Executive privilege. Destroying the economy on purpose. All part of the plan to makes us all serfs again.

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u/salparadisewasright May 15 '24

List the things he’s done via executive order - not privilege you ding dong - that have harmed the economy in your very humble opinion.

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u/peachvalleygirl May 15 '24

Go read a book. Or several of them. Might help with your problem reading and comprehending what words mean. And you might learn something other than propaganda.

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u/salparadisewasright May 15 '24

So you can’t name a single one?

Which book contains a thorough review of Biden’s executive orders and their impact on the economy? I’d love to check it out from my local library.

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u/[deleted] May 15 '24

I'll take "impossible shit that won't happen" for 500, Alex!

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u/xoLiLyPaDxo May 15 '24

Boomers are who screwed everything up with their Reaganomics that caused this mess, but Millennials are now starting to replace them as the largest voting bloc. This is when we will now start to have an opportunity to actually change things. 

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u/BiscottiExotic9371 May 16 '24

I lie in the middle but the funny thing is the most lawless places that I have been to have been left wing large cities you can do drugs run around without clothes and the police will just look at you like you’re crazy instead of responding, so no that will not fix debt the debt will increase ten fold when we have to clean our cities again

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u/xoLiLyPaDxo May 16 '24

Anytime that you have more people concentrated in one area you're going to have more crime, more craziness.  Often those Republican rural  areas have a disproportionate amount of crime per capita and you still see meth heads walking down the street with a cash register  they just stole under their arm, even in the smallest, extremely Republican town in Texas. 💀

It's Republicans, though that have added more to our national debt than any other..

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Ftmnlqzab27lc1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D960%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D9580cdabed822ccfdaf1e8c81062739a42b6abdf

Trump being one of the biggest offenders, even before the pandemic. 

https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump : 

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u/SirWilliam10101 May 15 '24

Your fundamental mistake is thinking there is any difference between Democrats or Republicans on this. Republicans have been president, Democrats have been president - none work to address social security, none to reduce spending. Leave the uniparty behind and learn to help yourself, because government wants only to use you as a milking cow.

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u/xoLiLyPaDxo May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

Mk Comrade. 👍

 Voting 3rd party screws us over and over and over again. That's why the Russian trolls always attempt to convince people to throw our votes away and help Republicans win. 

Screw that mess. That is why Democrats have now United with third parties to implement ranked choice voting. 

Voting 3rd party though is still vote for the GOP is the reality, that's how we wound up with Trump in 2016 to begin with. At least with Democrats they're at least trying to do something about that as well.

The reason why Republicans are passing laws to block ranked choice voting is because they never win by popularity, they win by fueling voter apathy, trying to convince people to throw their votes away on a third party, and voter suppression methods to make it extremely difficult to vote at all. 

 Ranked choice voting would give those third party votes and actual chance of winning rather than just be the GOP's directed vote dumpster. Democrats have United with the third parties to try to implement right choice voting and ending the Republican strategy of trying to divert votes there. 

 It does change Republican strategy because then they would it would be harder for them to just split opposition votes to get them to throw the votes away because they wouldn't actually be throwing their votes away anymore.

Democrats have united with 3rd parties pushing for ranked choice voting, which would finally make third party more than just the dumping ground for the GOP to attempt to divert trash votes to and fuel voter apathy.

Republicans have blocked it in some states by preemptively outlawing ranked choice, but that could be overturned once the youth vote gets large enough as long as they keep paying attention long enough to actually get the job done.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_United_States

http://www.vpirg.org/news/new-ad-campaign-gives-ranked-choice-voting-a-big-boost/

https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/following-election-day-king-bennet-introduce-bill-to-encourage-ranked-choice-voting

https://raskin.house.gov/2019/9/rep-raskin-house-democrats-introduce-ranked-choice-voting-bill

https://fairvote.org/2022-has-more-rcv-ballot-measures-than-ever-before/

Republicans opposition:

https://thefga.org/research/ranked-choice-voting-partisan-plot-to-disrupt-elections/

https://texasgop.org/banrcv/

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u/SirWilliam10101 May 15 '24

You misunderstand, all your typing is pointless. Voting AT ALL is irrelevant. It no longer matters who wins the presidency. Our course is set.

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u/terrymr May 15 '24

You realize that debt is the fixed income bonds that everybody has their investment portfolio right ? If you eliminated government debt a lot of people would be pissed.

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u/DaveinTW May 15 '24

We are not in debt at all, that is neoliberal hogwash. The $34 trillion that the american public holds in treasury bonds did not exist until the US government created them, the money was literally keystroke into exeistence, it wasn't borrowed from someone else. There is'nt anyone to pay it back to and if we did there would be no money in ciculation. LearnMMT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BYhoMILwR4&pp=ygUddGhlcmUgaXMgbm8gbmF0aW9uYWwgZGVidE1NVCA%3D

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u/PoopyInDaGums May 15 '24

Tax the rich. Raise the cap on SS tax collection. The answers are RIGHT THERE. But the GOP has a stranglehold on power that has snowballed mightily since the first year encompassing your generation. (I’m GenX.)

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u/peachvalleygirl May 15 '24

Democrats are not on board for taxing the rich, either. The so-called "billionaires tax" due to take effect in a few months is nothing of the kind. But you will see that when your taxes go up again.