61–70 of 73 posts
Well young people, go out and vote. If most gen Y/Z voted they would outvote te older people and maybe they can change things.
There is a reason why congressional approval ratings are at an all time low and re-elections rates are at an all-time high, at the same time.
No wonder voters, and not just young voters, feel hopeless.
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Imagine paying in from age 15 to age 55 and then being told that in 10 years you’re going to 74% of what you’ve been paying for for 40 years. You’re 4/5ths of the way there before the bait and switch.
I get the bait and switch feeling, I really do. But in reality that "paying in" is just a tax I've paid, and it's not unusual to get less than I was promised for a tax I've paid. Certainly I desire efficiency for my tax payments, but getting bent out of shape when that doesn't happen is just no way to live.
Imagine paying for car insurance and never seeing a dime back.
Some people win, mostly lower income widows that didn't pay in much. And then lived long past retirement. And then you have some single guy that dies in his early 60s.
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That's really the that for people who will be collecting in 8-10 years. For the under 40 crowd, they don't need it for 25 years and who knows how the demographics will play out then.
Imagine paying in from age 15 to age 55 and then being told that in 10 years you’re going to 74% of what you’ve been paying for for 40 years. You’re 4/5ths of the way there before the bait and switch.
Does anyone under 40 right now seriously expect to be able to collect social security at retirement age? It just seems like a cruel joke at this point.
They're all retired and collecting social security now.
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Thats true I definitely don’t know all the details of SS, just that it makes up an obscene amount of my yearly taxes (13%). So would you pay into the trust if it was optional? Why can’t I defer my SS payments by paying an equal amount into my 401k? If the purpose is to prevent society having to support elderly workers who failed to save anything that would also tick the box, but then the govt wouldn’t get to touch th…
> So would you pay into the trust if it was optional? Maybe not, but then again, I've been working most of my adult life for an employer of the kind that can be exempt (but which is opted-in) from SS. > Why can’t I defer my SS payments by paying an equal amount into my 401k? You can't opt out of the defined-benefit safety-net retirement backstop by putting more money into a no-guaranteed-benefit personally-directed r…
Not only is money I am taxed for social security gonna get way shittier returns than a 401k, I am hesitant to believe social security will look the same way it does today when I am retirement age in ~35 years.
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These types of arguments basically always reek of bootlicking to me. It's always a vague "things were better" when the material reality of the situation is everyone feels insanely economically insecure and feels a massive amount of anxiety. We're watching the aggregation of wealth by massive corporation and the loss of "good jobs", while wealth concentrates in the hands of those who already possess it. I refuse to be…
That’s not the material reality you’ve described because you immediately followed with “…everyone feels…”. Material reality would be something measured in objective material benefits enjoyed. Everything people read and consume today teaches them to feel things are worse because doomscrolling produces greater engagement. It’s the same reason people feel “injured” (offended) by things that boomers in their day would fi…
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The first should be prioritized much more than the second anyways. There's no reason SS is age based and not means based
That’s not the contract though. I and many others here have been paying in for years with the expectation that I can withdraw at 65. Honestly we should allow people to opt out entirely if they can demonstrate that they are adequately funding their own retirement/disability on their own plan. Social Security as it exists now is a Ponzi scheme.
Only if younger generations disappear Children-of-Men style.
And yet home ownership rate is higher today than it was at any time between (1965-1997) with an upward trend. If housing was so easily affordable back "then", why didn't everybody buy a house? Source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N
People are looking at modern times as if they're worse, when they're almost strictly better than everything that came before us. Far less of the world lives in poverty. People in developed nations have more access to information, entertainment, lifestyle choices, etc. Big media sells fear. Social media amplifies rage. They both create a miasma of doom that isn't reflective of the upward trajectory we've been on and c…
Sometimes social media can make things falsely exaggerated. But often, it just seems that way, when really it's just that more people are saying something in a more visible way. That's amplification, but not in the "false" sense.
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> So would you pay into the trust if it was optional? Maybe not, but then again, I've been working most of my adult life for an employer of the kind that can be exempt (but which is opted-in) from SS. > Why can’t I defer my SS payments by paying an equal amount into my 401k? You can't opt out of the defined-benefit safety-net retirement backstop by putting more money into a no-guaranteed-benefit personally-directed r…
Maybe we have different outlooks then. I would view my personal savings, assets and 401k as a sane guaranteed retirement plan, and having 0 savings but trusting the government to take care of me as a not-guaranteed plan. Not only is money I am taxed for social security gonna get way shittier returns than a 401k, I am hesitant to believe social security will look the same way it does today when I am retirement age in…
401k's do not have any guarantee, even in theory. You absolute should have some retirement plan outside of social security (which is, after all, just a backstop for that failing.)
> I am hesitant to believe social security will look the same way it does today when I am retirement age in ~35 years.
Well, I’m old enough that I've been hearing that refrain for more than 35 years, and have seen the math on the necessary changes to bring revenue and benefits in to line even if no action is taken before trustnfund exhaustion, and I haven't seen any sign that the radical damages some people try to use the threat of trust fund depletion to gain support for will become politically viable, so I am relatively confident that SS will remain in a recognizable form well into the future.
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Imagine paying in from age 15 to age 55 and then being told that in 10 years you’re going to 74% of what you’ve been paying for for 40 years. You’re 4/5ths of the way there before the bait and switch.
I get the bait and switch feeling, I really do. But in reality that "paying in" is just a tax I've paid, and it's not unusual to get less than I was promised for a tax I've paid. Certainly I desire efficiency for my tax payments, but getting bent out of shape when that doesn't happen is just no way to live.
Yeah, don't get me wrong. Taxes are taxes, and you just have to pay it. I have no problem with paying a tax to support elderly and disabled folks right now. But the thought of it still being solvent 30 years from now with the direction our country is heading is totally absurd. I fully expect the entire system to be gutted for our generation the moment a full Republican majority takes control.