More than ten years ago while you were crawling around on your
parents' floor over the holidays I had a conversation with my father as
my daughter was doing likewise. He was prattling on about how he was
owed Medicare, Social Security and all of these other benefits because
he had paid into those programs and "deserved" them. I explained
patiently to him that he had already voted to spend the money that he
had paid in on other things, and it was gone.
What he was now insisting on was that the little girl crawling on his floor, his grand daughter, be literally enslaved to pay for that which he believed he was entitled to have despite his own personal support of and votes for spending those monies on other things.
That conversation did not end well.
Some of the letter isn't quite true; the USSR was a substantive threat following WW2, simply because it would have been in their best interest to be able to threaten and bully us. War? Maybe not so much, but Communists aren't known for sanity.
ReplyDeleteStill, most of the spending was not actually on war-related materiel, at least not following 64.
I'll echo some of the comments in that thread, and ask 'How are we supposed to not pay, exactly?'
ReplyDeleteNothing like a little good old unintended consequences pep talk, eh?
ReplyDeleteJesus freaking Christ.
ReplyDeletehttp://neweconomicperspectives.org/2013/01/trillion-dollar-coin-posts-on-legality-and-constitutionality.html#more-4307
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnR64bUdfa0
Enjoy the decline and not just the general decline, but the collapse of the Western world as third grade like ideas like this become popular. Unbelievable.
I keep wondering when Gen X, Y, and Z(?) will burn their social security cards in front of the White House.
ReplyDeleteNever knew you were a Dad either.
Little do they know, a nursing home can quickly be converted into an internment camp, and there's one every few blocks in this country.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't going to end well for them....
What did he say to that? What the hell CAN you say to that?
ReplyDeleteThe last into a Ponzi scheme always get chumped. The Silent Majority generation chumped the Boomers, and the Greatest Generation (somewhat) chumped the Silent Majorities. I thought for sure the Boomers would have figured it out when they were drafted to fight in the Viet Nam police action (war is something you intend to win, a police action is merely a stall). As has been said of Democracies, little changes until a crisis. Behold the crisis. Boomers overpaid for SS under the pretext of there being a cushion for when they retired, and they believed it back when people didn't laugh when politicians said "lockboxes". But even the Boomer's overpayments have been spent, and SS is now, for all intents and purposes, already broke.
ReplyDeleteI pray the generations following the Boomers figure it out in time and protect themselves from the predations of other generations, but my hopes are not high. The propaganda factories have cranked out students who know little except how to submit.
One bright spot I'm seeing is the glimmer of System D aka the black market. Don't generate much, if any, taxable income and there's little or nothing for the elder generations to steal. It's a tenuous solution, but with the accelerating decline of the US dollar and the generations that follow the Boomers holding little in seizable assets it just might be enough to bring down institutionalized intergenerational theft.
Just a data point. All I can think to say is "clunk".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/the_america_of_2013.html
In the weeks leading up to the November elections, I had an epiphany: Obama will win because WHO WANTS TO GO BACK TO WORK!
ReplyDeleteThe only argument that I could see from the Romney camp was...we will put people back to work. Now, if you are on welfare, medicaid, 99 week extended unemployment wages or any of the other government opiates...why would you want to give that up and go back to work? Work is hard and boring and ginds your lust for life into dust.
The 60's generation of free love and "find yourself", can't really stand those thoughts. They have subconsciously contaminated the younger generation into being entitled and free of the "mandates" of the working class.
Your argument about saddling the next generations with incredible debt doesn't register with these folks. They have no guilt and they really don't care or think about their unintended consequences. Their thought process is this: Somebody will find a way to "fix" the problem. Don't bother me with the details while I "live" my life!
Happy thoughts for this glorious day of the Lord!
Steve
The Social Security fund was actually kept separately until 1967. It was the congressional democrats, led by Johnson, who pushed and passed the bill that commingled the Social Security trust fund with the general government fund.
ReplyDeleteALL problems associated with entitlements are all the fault of the democrats. This story will not have a good ending.
I've avoided that by not having any children. But ever time there's an election, I do write to my congresscritters and remind them that I will FIRE the son-of-a-bitch that touches my benefits.
ReplyDeleteI've had that damn FICA suction hose attached to my paycheck, without the option of opting out, since I was eleven years old, almost forty years ago.
I PAID for those benefits, and I'm going to have them. If the money's gone, congress can GO FIND SOME.
Fortunately, our K-16 system has brainwashed young people to keep paying into Social Security. Unfortunately, it has failed to provide them with any work habits or real-world job skills that would enable them to pay into Social Security.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Kurt.
ReplyDeleteThe dummies that created this mess are now in charge of solving it.
Is it any woner they come up with ideas like the trillion dollar coin?
Whoops - didn't read the article closely enough. My bad.
ReplyDeleteRead some of history, paying special attention to the jolly times in Germany during and after the Weimar Republic.
ReplyDeleteSee how really enjoyable decline can be.
I'm not saying it can be avoided, I'm only pointing that it won't be fun.
The Emanciation Proclamation only freed slaves in the states in rebellion, so I'm free but y'all aren't!
ReplyDeleteBWAAAhahahaha!
I'm a boomer and have paid into SS for 34 years. I don't expect to see a dime of it and it's not even a part of my financial plans. At this time I'd feel victorious if the Federal scums would just stop taking anymore from every check.
ReplyDeleteI love this country and what it's suppose to stand for, but those assholes in D.C. have sucked most of the life out of it. And for what? To hold power over a broken landscape? They're fucked up beyond comprehension!!
@Ecclesiastes: My home state of Florida was part of the Confederacy, so I'm free too.
ReplyDelete