In the good old days, before American taxpayers went broke supporting old people in luxury for the last 25 or 30 years of their lives, Americans used to live together as extended families, where grandma and grandpa lived upstairs, in the spare bedroom of their daughter in law or son in law's house.
Accordingly, grandma and grandpa would come down every evening to the supper table, grandpa would say Grace, and their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters would enjoy a meal together with their family.
Not anymore.
Now that the government has mandated that we all cough up our hard earned tax dollars in order that we provide all senior citizens over the age of 62 a luxury retirement, free from want or need. Their condos in Florida are paid for courtesy of their Social Security monthly stipends, their medicine and health care needs taken care of by Medicare and Medicaid, in addition to virtually free medicine via government provided pharmaceutical and prescription plans. These outlays used to be borne by the oldster's progeny, but not anymore. The government is now the supporter of our oldest citizens, not the sons and daughters.
As such, these oldsters live the remainder of their golden years in luxury, removed from the extended family where they are free to bad mouth their progeny at length for every grievance, real or imagined, and not have to endure the scorn heaped upon them should they have remained within the extended family under one roof and continued to bad mouth the daughter in law.
And now they are living out their golden years at all of our expense: and our economy is collapsing because of them. Old people now die within the confines of their luxury suites in Miami, and the U.S. taxpayer pays all the bills.
And old people are perfectly OK with this arrangement. They are a shame to our country. When the country is better off when you die (as SSN payments stop, Medicare and Medicaid end, in addition to all of the other goodies oldsters get), you should perhaps reflect on your parasitic ways.
But these geezers won't give it a second thought, as they wreck our economy and take another sip off of their government provided Mai Tai as they lounge by their government provided poolside in their government provided condo in Boca Raton.
Shame on all of you geezers.
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20 comments:
I couldn't agree more Fredd.
Damn! Fredd get off old people we get your point: We don't all live in luxury condos in Florida and we do pay Blue Cross for some of our care. We didn't set this system up we live by now it was the government, and I will be glad to vote to change it.
Agreed the Social Security system has replaced what used to be taken care of by the family and as such driven families apart.
In Korea they have no such system, the younger people simply take care of the elderly. The result is much stronger families.
Fredd, I love ya man, but you are Not considering the vast majority of people on SS.
My Mom was on SS. Lived in a high rise apartment building that was/is FAR from luxury.
My Aunt and Uncle who had some money of their own also ended up and died in that same apartment building. They paid into health coverage and paid taxes on the SS. I agree with Patsy 101%. You need to look a little/lot deeper if you want to find the demons in this story.
I Personally know of No One who sat out their twilight years in deck chairs for God's Sake.
You are talking about a Small minority of people who obviously have Lots of their own money and probably should be excluded from SS because of means testing.
Boca Raton? Puhlease. Why not mention La Jolla as well?
I'm for means testing. If you get all the good monopoly cards during the game and don't need SS in your golden years, then You Don't Get Any and Too Damn Bad. I'll take that side of the story myself btw and be happy.
Fredd,
Going to have to disagree here. I understand what you're trying to say, but the sad fact for many of us is that we are NOT retires, have to continue working, and cannot contemplate retirement in our foreseeable future. Many, many of us because of the sh*t-poor economy are supporting our children (and even grandchildren) who cannot find work and live with us at the ancestral manse.
Moreover, if you work, Social Security and Medicare are not that great of a bargain. Often our corporate health care insurance (when available) is better than the Medicare premiums and coverage; it's still an out-of-pocket situation.
And SS ain't a gift either. While you can work and not have your benefits reduced at age 66, you still have to pay into Social Security out of your paycheck and you are taxed on 85% of what you receive during the year. AND YOUR BENEFITS DO NOT INCREASE (except for the all-too-infrequent COLA raises). Get out a calculator, old son, mash some buttons and you will see that the net-net-net ain't as grand and glorious as you depict.
..in fact, it is such a small net figure one wonders how those assh*les in D.C. could mismanage it.
Enjoy your old age, Fredd.
Patsy:
So, I should just shut up, or that is what I am hearing from you. Shut up, Fredd.
Status quo is alright with you, and it's killing us as a nation.
Sorry, Patsy. This issue is the guts and red meat of our survival as a nation.
I will not shut up, sorry.
War Planner:
Nope, I am not the wrong guy, here, WP.
Sure, I take artistic license with how many geezers are lounging by their pools, but the fact, FACT, is that these geezers are using OTHER PEOPLE's money (MY MONEY) to fund their old age. They have NOT paid into this system @ 100%, probably not even 25% in the long run.
Not even arguable. NOT EVEN, War Planner.
I accept your humble apology. Very gracious of you, BTW.
Kid:
Of all the folks out there whose brains I envy, yours is at the top. I wish I had Kid's brain other than mine, given the choice.
Unfortunately, I got Fredd's brain, and I gotta make do.
But once you go down the path of 'means testing,' Kid, you cross over into the dark side.
First of all, who is the arbiter who decides who warrants and truly deserves taking money from the rest of us to make their lives whole? What angels amoung us are up to the job and upon whose shoulders we rest this decision?
Who is this person or committee who sets what is 'fair' and 'unfair?'
Kid, come on back to the side of the light: means testing is on the slippery slope to socialism and ultimately slavery.
Fredd, You disarm me. ;-]
I'll concede the means testing if you'll take your out of bounds tee shot that somehow made it all the way to Boca Raton and put it back in the fairway.
I'll admit, I've not been in the richer circles, but I have known many people from many walks of life and professions and none of them were or are living in the lap of luxury in retirement. Am I looking at too small a slice of society? I sure don't think so but you tell me.
That aside, I still maintain, that I will never collect what I've paid in when you consider inflation adjusted dollar and will only be living large if I've got a Lot of my own money put away by then. Especially today. And consider the large number of folks who pay and never collect. This was part of the original algorithm when the plan was conceived and sold to the public so I consider it valid to mention. It's a bit of a ponzai scheme I admit but this is America and shouldn't We have it better for all we do for the rest of the world?
What of the Public Sector workers who retire in their 50's! and collect 80% or more salary AND full benefits for 30+ years? Prison workers in Calif retire at 50 with incredible pay and benefits.
Hey, luck of the draw and I'll keep a stiff upper lip and all, but as a working stiff since I was 15 (officially) and much further back unofficially, I'm feeling like the bottom of the food chain when it comes to getting any kind of relief from the outside world and am sensitive to attack so that's part of it too. I have yet to collect a dime for anything, let alone even be offered.
PS. I've said since my late teens "I would LOVE to pay a million in taxes" and in this context I will say "I would LOVE to ahve the government tell me I make too much to collect SS. That's me and realizing that I would not want to force that on others but I wouldn't think highly of anyone who collected SS and didn't even feel the slightest ripple in their checking account.
Another good one Fredd. You've sparked to substantive conversation.
Many are not living in luxury, but point well made. Used to, we helped one another out, it the government didn't give us money or tell us to do it. We just did it because it was our Christian duty.
To Kid, Patsy, Silverfiddle and the Rest of you 'Lap of Luxury Deniers:'
Of course not all geezers lounge by their Boca Raton (or La Jolla, CA) poolsides sipping government Mai Tais. I am trying to make a relative point, here. And you guys are trying to deny me this point: old folks today live like kings compared to the good old days, when they remained part of the extended family.
My own mother, age 82, lives in a cramped apartment, and has a very small ($200/mo.) pension from my dad's prior employer, whom let him go almost 4 decades ago. She collects, including medicine, SSN, Medicaid, etc. etc., almost $40K annually. She has contributed, give or take, ZERO into any of these funds over her lifetime, has never earned any money, and is now approaching around HALF A MILLION DOLLARS in collected lifetime benefits.
My mom used to vote Republican when Dad was raking in the bucks in his prime, but now votes religiously Democrat, straight down the line, because that is the price for her government cheese, in her deal with the Devil.
And my point: compared to every other old person in the world, she indeed lives in the lap of luxury: she has government electricity, governement food, government 46" LCD flat screen, government heat, government roof over her head, governemnt cat food and governemnt EVERYTHING.
Other poor folks who have contributed to their old age funds to the same degree as my mother around the world are lucky to have a tar paper roof over their heads, and whatever they can take in with their begging...assuming they have alienated their family, and are out in the gutters where they eventually end up every where else other than the good ol' USA.
I REST MY CASE.
And PS to Kid:
Don't get me started on public sector unions, and government workers (teachers, firemen, policemen and military) who retire in their prime of life (after enduing arguable dangerous and/or tedious tasks in their prime), and collect from the public trough for another 40 years, just don't get me started, Kid...
DOH! You got me started....!
This particular blog just picked the worst offenders of sucking up public funds: old people. Second offender has to go to public sector union parasites. I think I have already bashed them in prior blogs, though, although it wouldn't hurt to refresh the bashing some more...
Ok Fredd, Peace Baby.
Imagine how much the public sector retirees are sucking out.... All comes out of the same taxpayer funded pot you know.
"I accept your humble apology. Very gracious of you, BTW."
..didn't offer it, Fredd. Nor do I need to. I understand your frustration with those who "do not need" SS but it is the fault of the system not theirs. The rules were: you pay x dollars now and we'll provide you y dollars when you attain a certain age and/or find yourself in a certain set of circumstances.
It's a bargain made by fools and -- as I pointed out, even when we collect and have to work, we still lose net-net-net.
Your issue is NOT with the old folks, Fredd, it's with the government who mismanaged this and *still* do not move to reform it.
I remind you that somewhere back in 2003 "W" offered to try to work with the Dems on SS reform and that went nowhere.
Now the program is going broke and we hear plaintive wails like yours.
Like the manager in Major League said, "Life's a shit sandwich but if you make a lot of bread, it's not so bad."
War Planner:
Your humble non-apology aside, your argument is reasonably sound, but your conclusion is off the mark.
My 'plaintiff wail' is simply pointing out the obvious: this shit sandwich was indeed served up by one constituency group: old people. They are the ones who voted for those scalawag politicians in exchange for this deal with the devil.
It is inarguably old folks' fault. Scalawags that implemented this deal are just that: scalawags. The ones who made it happen: the geezers who trotted off to the polls to vote in that shit sandwich.
Of course, that major league manager is not wrong. If you are awash in bread, then it dilutes the bad taste of the base ingredient. Again, I grudgingly accept your forthcoming apology. Very gracious of you, BTW.
Fredd,
Tangential to this discussion but in response to the post left on The War Planner regarding UCLA's upcoming football fortunes: you drop this specious brickbat as though I gave a royal crap. Not to mimic Randy Quaid's character in Major League II but Neuheisel will find a way to blow it out his barracks bag and lose YET ANOTHER (his fifth straight) to SC.
On the other hand, hope your DUX manage to stay one step ahead of the NCAA's grim reaper.
That program's kinda like the "USC of the North", no?
War Planner:
Everybody cheats. At least, the winners do. I witnessed this in person when I was an undergrad at Oregon: a QB in my lit class never cracked a book, bragged about it, and apparently got a passing grade. I had to bust my ass to get a B. Those lit classes suck the holy shit out of your time with all of the reading, and yet this QB retained his eligibility just by showing up, and nothing more.
The Ducks will dodge this if they just stick to their story, and so does everyone else. Who is going to prove what motivated LaMichael James to sign up with Oregon? If he sticks to his story, Oregon will shake that 'USC of the North' moniker, however well deserved it unquestionably is.
Go Ducks. They cheat smarter than the Trojans. Duh.
PS> Neuheisel will blow this year down his leg, just like he has with every other team. Bet on it. Tell me how things go with your Southern Division of the Pac 12. Oregon should rule the North. (Utah, Schmutah...)
Fredd, the REALLY sad thing is how many people believe they "paid into the system."
There was no "system" to pay into. They actually paid for those who were reired while they were still working.
Today, SS beneficiaries receive money from those working today.
There is no SS "trust fund," only paper IOUs dependent on the "good faith and credit" of the government (laugh, laugh).
It is a ponzi scheme of Madoffic proportions.
In my country the state does care but the children do.The only luxury we pamper them with is ..LOVE..:)
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