From Tom Margenau, a retired Social Security employee with a syndicated column:
… I remember way back in 1973 when I was sent out as a relatively new Social Security Administration spokesperson to deliver my first speech on the topic. And hardly before I had a chance to introduce myself, some guy in the audience who appeared to be around 40 years old jumped up and said, “I don’t know why we should listen to anything you have to say. We all know Social Security will go belly up long before we ever have a chance to collect a dime out of the system!” …
Well, of course, if that guy is still alive, he’d be pushing 90 now and would have been collecting many millions of dimes in the form of Social Security checks, month in and month out, for about 30 years now. …
That story always reminds me of something I learned from one of my mentors when I started working for the Social Security Administration. He was a fairly high-placed official within the agency who started working for the SSA shortly after it was created in 1936. And he told me that way back then, many members of the public were telling him that the Social Security program was doomed to failure. …
Great story but we live in different times. We have a 37 trillion debt, AI, bad economy, low birth rate, and longer longevity. This adds up to cuts across the board for SSA recipients.
ReplyDeleteThis administration doesn’t see all Americans as worthy of their rights. They have already denied transgender military their early retirement, singling them out. When you have a thief at the helm you can expect him to steal from you. We are living through a time when our leaders don’t even have respect for the Constitution let alone an entitlement like social security.
ReplyDeleteI suspect those fears may come true in the next 3 years.
It has always mystified me why people, younger people in particular, believe that Social Security will not exist for them. It finally occurred to me that for most people in their 20's or 30's the idea that they will ever be old is unimaginable. I was no different back in 1973. But here I am, 50 + years later, well into my 70's and still here. It happens. So, when they say, it won't be here, they are really just not being able to fathom that they will be here.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe that 2075 will come some day and, yes, it is hard to imagine that Social Security will be around given all the issues of debt and democracy, but unless there is some major catastrophe, of course not impossible, I believe anyone who is willing to throw out Social Security because it won't be there for them is just a fool.
The appeal of the Doomsday Cult never diminishes.
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