Social Security..Is It a Ponzi Scheme?

Imagine this scenario..you work for fifty years, faithfully paying your taxes and dreaming of that day when you can retire because you have faith that the system will take care of you.  You start planning your financial budget with all of the retirement income that you will have coming in.  You faithfully waited until 67 to retire so you could take full advantage of the social security that you receive.  Your first social security check comes in the mail and suddenly it is only 75% of the benefits that you were suppose to get.  What the hell?

Retirement is an important part of ones life and we should look forward to it without worrying about financial issues.  The Social Security program was something that was a good idea because at the time there were many elderly people during the Great Depression that were poor.  It has become so much more than Social Security adding disability, Medicaid and unemployment later on.

Facts about Social Security

The Social Security system is our largest social program and it is used by advocates of other social programs as to how the government is able to provide for their people.  A lot of the annual budget goes to social security and yet people continue to say we are going to have problems in the future.  People want more money to put into the program despite an almost three trillion dollar surplus.  So why are they asking for more money?

The reason why is that as with most programs, the planning was done to try to impress constituents versus actually making the program something that is good for the present and the future.

First of all, Social Security is a tax, it is not a savings account or anything even close to it.  It is not like a 401K or a pension where you made a choice to put money into something.  It is a tax that both the employee and employer have to pay in order to keep it liquid, it has nothing to do with having a choice.  With it being a tax, it can be reversed at anytime without anyone saying they have to give the money back.  So if some group of legislators say one day they want to stop Social Security, they can.  That is why when Donald Trump passed a plan to temporarily stop payroll taxes to give people some relief, the haters immediately complained making it seem like he was attacking social security.  Besides having the right to do it, what they didn't say is that people would have to still pay that money back.  The haters didn't care about the people on social security, they were covering up what is blatantly the weakness of social security. 

Social Security is not an entitlement despite when people love to say it is.  An entitlement means you have a right to something but as previously communicated the government can change the law at anytime therefore taking this away.  Even the Supreme Court has said this is not an entitlement and the paper statement received for social security has printed the laws can change.

Supreme Country on Social Security

So what makes up the weakness of Social Security, one that showed the original plan was not as thought out as it could have been.  The plan was to pay the retirement payments for today's elderly with  payroll deductions that come from people that are working today.  So for those that think the amounts taken out of your paycheck is going into some fund that you are guaranteed to get when you retire, think again.  For those that say what I paid while working is what I am getting when I retire.  Think again.  You will be dependent on the people working at the time you retire to pay for your Social Security.

To update those that hear all of the grumblings about the future of social security.  Estimates say the 3 trillion dollar excess will be gone by the year 2035, that doesn't mean it will run out of money.  It means that the amount of benefits will be less because the amount of money coming in to make the payments will be less.  So people will not get 100% of their money that they thought they would.  Again, bad planning on the side of the government.

7 Myths of Social Security

A Ponzi scheme is defined as a fraudulent investing scam which generates returns for early investors with money taken from future investors.  How does that not sound like Social Security?  We are giving money to the elderly today with funds taken from working people who will retire in the future.  So we have to depend on working people to make sure our social security program has enough money to pay out.  Unemployment benefits do not charge social security taxes.  Illegal immigrants do not pay social security taxes unless they have a social security number and even then they do not get benefits.

So the fact that the government controls Social Security, they also control when people are able to get those benefits.  That is an additional knife in the gut of American's.  The government tells us when we have to retire in order to get our full benefits, not only for social security but for any kind of retirement.  If you choose to retire at 62 you only get a portion of the benefits you were told you would get and in the future that might even be less than it is now.  If one waits five more years, then one will get maybe 100% or in the future less.  For 401K, they tell you that you have to be 59 1/2, where did they come up with that number.  If you decide to retire early and take that money out, you may endure a penalty.  So anyone that wants to retire on their time may not get any money so the government wins again.

There are other holes in the plan that is Social Security.  There didn't seem to be a plan for population increases in the United States.  In 1935, the population was 127 million people (over 300+ years) and since that time we have increased in population by 200 million plus (over 85 years).  Other than a cost of living increase and some modest payroll tax increases, Social Security fell way behind.  How was this not taken into consideration?

Another hole is a change in the the job market effecting Social Security.  When jobs decrease, the amount of money being given to Social Security is also going to decrease while the amount being paid out will continue or go up.  What changes were put in place when technology has removed jobs from the market and therefore less money going into the fund.  The same with outsourcing, no jobs, no money.  

It's greatest weakness has  shown no brighter than the current Covid crisis.  The number of unemployed people increased and so the amount of money being paid into Social Security has decreased tremendously and eventually will need to make up the money.  The most ironic thing is that the government is responsible for putting many of these people out of work and therefore the reason the money is not going into Social Security.  Why would one ever make something dependent on other people working to fund it, of course that is how the entire government works.  No working or low wages means less taxes.  Hmmm...could that be the reason for all of the advocating of more jobs and more wages?

Even the original issue, solving elderly poverty, is still not totally fixed.  Even though one gets more than they put in (if getting 100%) they still get a lot less than what they were making.  Depending on where one lives, social security is not enough to live on.  Then if people try to offset with another job, they can only earn a certain amount otherwise they will have to pay taxes.  Taxes on the taxes.

A part of bad planning for Social Security that we do not even talk about is something that has a lot of different rumors about it.  Social Security has its own governmental trust fund (a fund is where the money is stored) and is not used for anything else, which the general fund is.  However, because it is a tax, the government as it does with most of our other taxes, uses the money received to buy Treasury bonds.  The government has to pay the money back with interest which is one of the ways the plan increases.  However, that interest is one of the largest expenses the federal government pays each year.  So basically, it helps one fund but shorts another.  If the fund has no surplus then it means the government has less money to use from the fund.  Less money means less programs and a hard time making interest payments.

So how will the government get the program in line?  There really isn't a lot of things they can do that do not potentially hurt some tax payer.  One is increasing the payroll tax which is currently 6.2% for social security (both employee and employer) and 1.45% for Medicare.  Who knows what they would have to increase it by to make it work but it would take more money out of people's pocket.  One thing going around is increasing the minimum amount of wages that are subject to taxes (which increases based on cost of living), currently at $142,800.  It has been said to increase from anywhere between $250,000 and $400,000.  Every $10,000 takes out $620 for social security so increasing the limit on wages takes money out of people's pocket which means they have to adjust their livelihood.  Raising the retirement age, adjust the benefits formula and/or changing the cost of living formula are some other ways, all of which hurts the working people.

Social programs are essential for the people to live a decent life in their country.  However, these social programs are really only beneficial if they do not hurt others in the operating of them and if they are planned well.  So we have to ask ourselves if we do have social programs, is the government the right ones to run these programs.  We have to push back on the people making the decisions that take our money and do not use it wisely.  Otherwise, that day we open the check from the government it will not be enough for us to retire the way we want, it will continue to be the way the government wants.

Trump Exposed Our Country..We Should Thank Him

Something that I have never understood is how people can be so consumed with self interest that they let it take over their lives to the tune of doing something stupid or blaming the world for the issues.  Then again why should we be surprised because we are human beings and unfortunately that is part of human nature.

For four years, many in this country separated themselves because of one man.  There were very few people in between when it came to Donald Trump and in the end, I don't think he really cared either way.  The problem is that the issues of this country either got worse or even ignored, bringing about tons of blame but no accountability.

What we do not talk about is that Trump exposed our country for what it is at this moment and for that we really should thank him because now we can attack these issues, if we choose to.

The hypocrisy started before Trump was even elected, it started when he was a candidate.  The people of the political establishment do not like it when outsiders are close to taking over their power and they will do whatever they can to stop it.  Don't think it can happen, look at this years Democratic Campaign.  Bernie Sanders, a true outsider for the people, was leading the race for the party.  Suddenly, right before the primaries and caucuses, Joe Biden comes into the race.  So now it was a party guy against the non party guy, who do you think was going to win?  The difference this time was Bernie for some reason dropped out of the race early so by the time the election came around, no one really remembered he was part of the conversation.  Unlike 2016, when Bernie was still having polls about whether he could beat Trump so people still had him in their mind when voting.  This is not about conspiracy, it is about asking questions.  For those that want to see what the establishment can do watch the documentary "The Plot Against the Presidents".

The election of Donald Trump brought forth issues that have been lost as the country tried feverishly to get him out of office.  One thing his election showed is there are a lot of people who are feeling under represented when it comes to the government.  Do we really believe that 60+ million people would elect a misogynistic egomaniac if they thought anyone else was listening to them?  The other thing it exposed is the way we view each other as American's.  60+ million people that used their right to vote for someone they felt were listening to them, yet we called them nothing but ignorant, white supremacists despite the fact that minorities, women and some intelligent people voted for him.  Instead of listening to this group, we continually showed them that maybe they had a point that no one was listening, not even their fellow American's.

One of the biggest highlights of the election was the hypocrisy of the people of establishment government.  Immediately, there were calls of voting improprieties because of Russia, saying his election wasn't real.  They said because he received less popular vote that democracy was gone and we should end the electoral college.  Of course, in the 2020 election the electoral college is okay and even in the midst of calls of election issues, the winners were saying no need to investigate it.  When riots happened all the way up to the Congress voting for the electoral college in 2016, no one talked about how it was ruining democracy.  Of course, when it came to 2020, everyone blamed Trump without a word being said about 2016.

It immediately showed that Trump was never going to succeed because the people of the established government and the people of the country weren't going to allow it.  If he had done everything correct, they still would have found something to push him to failure because when people have you in their sights it is difficult to get away.  We should really be upset as American's that we assisted in this push to the failure of our President, a man whether we like it or not was voted in by our democratic system.  If we can do it to him, now we know we can do it to anyone.  Now that they have their power back in 2020, they still have to realize they have a voice to answer to because he still to ten million more votes than last time.

For four years, the people of the establishment tried and tried to bring down the President and each time they failed.  What they didn't fail at is getting more people to hate this man and dividing the country even more.  Donald Trump did himself no favors by sounding like a buffoon and making it seem like his supporters were also buffoons.  It exposed that an egomaniac cannot be trusted to represent 300 million people.  It exposed the failure of the people who were voted to represent us when they spend all of their time trying to reverse the decision of the people instead of doing their job.  That is really what we should take from the past four years because it means the parties have officially taken over our democracy and continue to only push their own agenda.  They continue to manipulate us into thinking they are doing it for us when they only care about their own power.

Something very few talk about over the past four years is what was exposed of the American people.  We found that our internal prejudice, hatred, anger and frustration continues to drive the worst of who we are and act it out on our fellow human beings.  Instead of taking accountability for it, we continue to blame and criticize others for our actions and words.  The continual division of the people further stops us from really figuring out who we are as American's.  How can we expect to have a country we all can leave in if we are always separating ourselves into groups instead of being decent human beings.

It also exposed how easily we as people can be manipulated.  It has been proven Russia manipulated us into hating Hillary during the 2016 election by posting social media that created the hate.  We continue to manipulate each other on social media and politicians have figured out they can use the same platform to manipulate us.  At the same time, the social platforms themselves are using it to manipulate us into what they want us to know.  For those that do not think it can happen, watch the documentary "The Social Dilemma".

Covid 19, no matter what one believes, is probably the greatest crisis to hit this country since the Great Depression.  What this exposed is the failure of most people in a crisis.  It showed the breakdown of so many of our systems and how fear can overtake people's reaction.  This could have been something that united us as a country but instead it divided us even more because of these weaknesses.

It exposed is how weak our leaders are when it comes to understanding that they have the lives of 300 million people plus in their hands.  Trump, a person use to putting his own interests ahead of others, will always fail when it comes to protecting others.  He could not put aside his ego and that ego won't allow him to admit failure.  

Don't think that Trump is the only one that failed on this.  Our other leaders also showed how weak they are in a crisis.  First of all, trying to immediately blame every bad decision on Donald Trump so he doesn't get reelected instead of focusing on the crisis at hand showed their true character.  It was a time where the leaders could have worked together but instead kept driving their own party agenda instead of the agenda of the people.  Elections are our opportunity to show our leaders that we will not stand for their weakness and failures, this should have been used more in this past election because all of our leaders failed us from local, state and federal level.

Shutdowns, calling people essential and non essential, continuing to blame everything on racism, allowing people to protest and riot when others are told to stay in their houses.  Instead of treating the people of this country as human beings, we treated them as five year olds that have to be told what to do, when to do it and how to do it.  Then when we pushed back they had the gall to say we should be trying to unite as a country.  These are the failures of not only our leaders but ourselves because we let our fear be more important than making sure the country did not become what it did.

Even after the election, Trump continued to expose us.  Donald Trump says there is election issues, his opponents say he is a sore loser.  No one talks about an investigation they just continue the Trump dumping to get him out of office.  No one discusses the 2016 investigation that had to be done for Russia or the investigation that had to be done in 2018 when Stacey Abrahms cried fraud.  I guess if Donald Trump was a Democratic black woman, people might have listened.

Then came January 6th, a day that surprised people when it shouldn't have.  Continually being told that they should be quiet about the election or that they need to get over that their candidate lost.  What did they think was going to happen?  As they protested, people were saying they should shut up and this caused a few idiots to say enough was enough so they attacked the capitol.  All this really did was expose Trumps opponents for what they are, vindictive, petty, selfish individuals.  Instead of preparing for another President, one they wanted, they tried one last time to get Donald Trump and while they were at it, as many of their enemies as they could.  Of course, it also gave them an incident they could use to get their agenda moving in the next administration.  See how many times this incident is used to get what they want over the next four years.

The people of the establishment didn't care that they just won, they wanted to serve notice that no outsider would ever be welcome.  How may times over the years has a politician said things about other people that incited people to do things?  I am sure we can find plenty of examples, including examples where Presidents commuted sentences of the rioters.  These types of events may not have been the same type of situation but it is still actions of politicians that these occurred.  

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/history-violent-attacks-capitol-180976704/

One thing that continued to be exposed is that the riots were because voices continued to be ignored not only by the politicians but the American people.  Of course, when these riots occur it is because of white supremacy and ignorance.  When the 2020 racial riots occurred because their voice was trying to be heard, we were told we needed to listen to them and riots were an expression of their oppression.  Forgotten as well is the riots of 2016 election which also occurred to try to overturn an election were because we elected Donald Trump and needed to listen.

Figuring they could use the momentum, the riots also allowed the establishment to go after their perceived enemies.  If any Republican said anything about the election, they were going after them because they were part of the incitement.  It didn't matter that over the years, people such as Nancy Pelosi or the darling of the House, AOC have said some pretty rotten things about their counterparts as well as the people of this country.  They don't seem to be accountable for saying some of the things they say, including accusing fellow Congressman of 'attempted murder'.  I guess because there is no visual incitement of it so it is okay.

Say what you want about Donald Trump and you can say a lot about him.  What I want to say is thank you for doing what very few people have done before or will probably do after.  That is exposing the people of the establishment government for who they really are and their lack of character.  Also exposing the people of this country for their hypocrisy and some of the idiotic actions that we continue to blame on others for.

So thank you Donald Trump for showing us the way, now we need to use it to fix the problems.