Lawrence Glickman writes about the long, long history of calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme." Repeating this lie endlessly for almost 90 years doesn't make it true. It just points out how pathetically ineffective the argument is. Accept reality. The right wing has no conceivable path to eliminating Social Security or even significantly changing it, apart from what it's doing, defunding its administration, and that will ultimately prove to be horrendously unpopular as I think even they know. They just feel so strongly about this that they're willing to do a suicide charge.
20 comments:
Why would they want to? They keep saying it's a "huge" part of the budget, but it is self-funding, so that's not accurate! If they know that it is self-funding, and helps people then why would they want it gone? Wouldn't that, almost overnight, impoverish 1/3 of the country? Who wins with this?
Of course rightwing has been ineffective in shutting down SSA. The existence of SSA is proof of that. And that is part of the reason Trump won… AGAIN. And massively!
Why are you still looking to past trends when you know Trump has proven to be the outlier anomaly?
If you think the rightwing of today is the same rightwing of the last 90 years, you need to rethink.
And if you don’t think SSA is not a Ponzi scheme, try hoping that, if Trump is successful in shutting down SSA, you might get all of your money back minus federal taxes.
There are only three criticisms of Social Security these people can ever think of-
1- It's a Ponzi scheme!!!! (by that tortured logic, so is any government benefit)
2- I could have gotten a higher rate of return using (financial instrument)!!!!! (that's because this isn't a retirement investment, it's a government social net program)
3- Who cares, Social Security isn't gonna be around for me anyway (nice job swallowing this hogwash, Gen X- you're making it a self-sustaining prophecy)
The way to fight these people is to put them on the back foot. What is their answer for the 20% of Americans currently receiving Social Security? What is their literal plan for how these people do not starve?
The real answer, of course, is "none" and "I don't care", and your job is to strip down all of their evasions and what-aboutisms until they finally admit something close to that.
The only time you could’ve maybe gotten a better return on your FICA taxes might’ve been a portion of the 1980s, when interest rates were bizarrely high for a handful of years. And even that’s questionable when you consider you’re not just getting Social Security in return for your FICA, but are also getting health insurance coverage in old age.
Oh, and is anyone really stupid enough to believe that their employer would start paying them 7.5% more if the FICA tax was abolished? Dream on, morons.
The goal is to villainize the system by saying it’s a Ponzi scheme or that people would make more money investing instead of paying into SSA. This is to get the public on board for privatization. That’s the goal here. Current Fiserv employees posted on their blog “that Frank will be taking over a privatized SSA under KKR. KKR is going to merge the new SSA with Fiserv. Frank will be CEO of the combined company and Mike will be CEO of Fiserv.”
Evan one of the DOGE leads at SSA, Scott Coulter, was previously a hedge fund management before his company Cowbird Capital was shuttered.
We are seeing SSA being dismantled in real time. The biggest clue was to immediately end all phone services before landing on starting with direct deposit under the guise of fraud prevention.
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1jnpt164t
Big tech bros that want to create freedoms cities on federal land without laws and regulations. The government and people receiving SSA benefits, SSI payments, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, subsidies, etc. are of no use in their society. The government creates laws and regs blocking their vision of the future and people utilizing gov programs cannot make them more money and power. Their ideology is very Brave New World meets 1984. Follow the money-look up Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, Baji, Elon Musk (dark enlightenment).
Republicans have been eyeing the privatization of Social Security for decades but were afraid to touch it due to voter backlash. The perfect solution was to outsource the job to DOGE and now they can sit back and defend the looting by saying they are fighting waste, fraud and abuse. Well done Republicans but we will see how it goes in the 2026 midterms.
Remember - Trump won 49.80% of the popular and Harris won 48.33. Hardly a landslide. But it was the first time in 20 years the republican nominee won the popular vote.
The 2026 midterms may be too late to save SSA. And not sure there will even be an election then.
But this week, a still-more ominous threat appears to be circling. Bloomberg reports that three individuals representing private equity concerns — firms in an insidious financial industry intent on harvesting anything that can rake in a profit for the ultrarich — have now shown up, alongside DOGE, to meddle in the life-sustaining work of the SSA.
This should be of grave concern to all, but the public at large is not widely aware of these threats. Private equity is just that: private, and opaque by design. These firms’ grotesque amassment of wealth has enabled them to cannibalize huge reaches of the economy; estimates vary, but the industry’s combined assets run, at minimum, into the several trillions.
And now, private equity’s sights are turning to the Social Security Administration. Privatization of the retirement market has been a long-standing goal of capital. If the SSA really were dismantled, a vast retirement market — over a trillion dollars — would open up, into which could be shoved all sorts of new corporate profit models and plans. Yet the social results, at least for those who aren’t wealthy investors, are easy to imagine if you’ve had the essential U.S. experience of grappling with health insurance. There would be the familiar labyrinths of complexity, deception and usurious charges — but the harms inflicted could easily multiply, as the market for retirement programs is, of course, retirees: older people, disabled people and those in deepest need. Privatization for profit would target the savings and last hopes of all these communities.
Nothing will stop these greedy LIEbertarians from implementing the Chicago Boys Chilean Privatization scam. They are making a fatal mistake because they are ignoring the way this ripoff will play out. All hell will break loose and they're gonna get the blame...if they are lucky...
This has been done before, they are called company towns...
There were 250 million eligible voters in this last election and 90 million sat it out. He did not win the popular vote.
Social Security is a social insurance program. Just like any insurance (car, house, life) you pay premiums (FICA) and may or may not ever use it (collect benefits). The premiums you pay are used by others to cover their claims (specifically those which exceed whatever premiums they have already paid), unless and until you have a claim. It's a bit of an oversimplified explanation but not that far off the mark as some of the more public characterizations.
This also explains the looming trust fund deficit as there are less premiums being paid than claims/payments for benefits. But then again, the whole country's budget is in a huge deficit so it is more indicative of a failure of the whole of Congress (which controls the budget all year, every year) than any single person or political party.
The Social Security trust fund has a surplus now. What happens in 20 years when it is (by design) no longer running a surplus? Not much to put into private equity at that point. It was designed as a 'pay as you go system and was only changed because of the baby boomers.
That’s a heavy case of Trump derangement syndrome there. At each step if the way, Trump has attempted an action and the courts have countered with it’s legality. The courts are behind as they always are, but they catch up. Reinstating the fired probationary workers is the latest example. It’s ugly, and could have been done much better, but those that remain will get through this and rebuild on the other side. And yes, there will be mid-terms, which is why they are in such a hurry.
I think it is very hard to break social security, given its popularity. If I were a democrat politician, I would try to get legislation in where everyone’s MBA is multiplied by 1.1 or something. Get rid of the cap or make it a lot higher. Use Elon as an example of people needing to pay much more fica. Yes fica taxes would go up but you get a higher benefit so it is worth it. Plus fica taxes will have to go up anyway in ten years so why not now?
It's a simple understanding for me.
Social Security benefits are no ponzi scheme. It's simply the strong taking care of the weak.
The Republicans have been against Social Security sine 1934. Nothing has changed.
Calling it a Ponzi scheme only demonstrates that they don't now what a Ponzi Scheme actually is. It is getting people to invest in something with above market returns that can only be satisfied by recruiting new investors to pay off the first investors and the backers of the plan.
Social Security is Insurance, not an investment, and never pretended to be. And it is insurance that provides benefits not just in old age but if you are disabled and to family members if you die, a type of life insurance.
Post a Comment