Glenn Beck says forget about your social security

I was flipping through the channels and landed on the Glenn Beck show on CNN. He was talking with Ari Flesher and someone else about the horrible market. During the conversation Glenn gets this weird look in his eyes and looks in the camera and says something to the efffect of do not expect to collect on your social security because it ain't gonna happen. It should be on you tube at some point.

My problem is, if we aren't going to collect social security then why should we be paying taxes? I've been paying in for 25 years now and I am pretty freaking enraged that Glenn thinks I should just write this off as a loss and just accept that my government has royally lied and screwed me.

Don't be upset at Glenn Beck for what he said...


I mean really, you didn't see this coming? I had no idea anyone still expected to collect social security.

The social security fund has been a shell game for years. TPTB have been borrowing money from it for years. And think, the largest contributor to the SS fund (Baby Boomers) are set to retire and all go on social security. Who is going to have to foot the bill? How immense will that bill be? Im 25 and I will foot the bill intil the system collapses. I will never receive benefits from it because it cannot last much longer. It will reach critical mass in the next 20 years and many think that this is a generous estimate.

Yes we got screwed. Doesn't your anus have a callous yet?

I mentally wrote off my social security years ago. My Mother called one day and said she felt guity for taking it, given that she also has federal retirement. I encouraged her to take it, as that was MY payin she was realizing.

I've also mentally written off the government-mandated retirement that this country requires of employed workers. I took a 4,000 hit when both the Enron scandal and 9/ 11 occurred.

I've come to realize that if there's nothing left to steal from me, that I am golden, if I've planned for these systems to be gone. If they actually come through, then weeeeeeeeeeeee! for me!

Originally posted by argentus
I've come to realize that if there's nothing left to steal from me, that I am golden, if I've planned for these systems to be gone. If they actually come through, then weeeeeeeeeeeee! for me!

They got me too. Been there, lost that. But why don't we talk about this? It's a lie they tell and that's OK? What about Bill Clinton getting a special experience? That's a lie worth allowing?

If they don't have social security then we will be a socialist state, or we will have a lot of glue, soap and soylent green.

You'll still get a check, and probably get the money you put in back. The catch is that the purchasing power will be so low that it will be next to useless.

The price of milk when you started paying in: $2.50. The price of milk when you might see that money back: $10.00.

I was actually going to start a thread about this a a while back but figured it had already been done and I just didn't know how to use the search engine.

Here's the point I was going to make.

If we can spend billions of mystery dollars a month fighting a war nobody wanted in the first place and bail out a corrupt financial mess to the tune of a trillion dollars, why all the talk for years that SS is going bankrupt.

An earlier post mentioned that baby boomers had contributed substantial contributions into the system but when it comes time for them to withdraw their funds as SS checks that there will not be enough in the system to cover the demands on the system.

First, boomer's contributions in part have covered recipients who predated the contribution requirement and put no money into the system so if you want to talk about not getting back what you put in, don't come crying to me.

Second, even adjusting for inflationary prices in the future, those deposits weren't just put under a mattress somewhere in the Fed. Where is the interest on those deposits?

Third, and yes the government has been "borrowing" on those deposits for years. Who, where, and when? Should be a paper trail somewhere. Put it back, WITH interest and penalty for touching it in the first place.

The current suggestions bandied about that would allow people to "invest" their money in a stock market that is currently tanking just takes even more money out of the system and those that did so choose to invest need only look at what has happened to 401k's in the last decade. Bad idea. I lost over 1/4 of my holdings back in the 90's and never recovered those funds.

The talk that the current recipient has to rely on deposits from the next generation is just bad math. Obviously, if boomers have put the bulk of the contributions into the system then there should have been a surplus in the first place. The only requirement of the government should be that interest is paid on that money deposited into the account to cover costs of inflation.
Now seeing as the government's bad financial practices have driven the rate of inflation to todays ungodly levels, the people in the system should not be the ones who are told that there is no money left. Also, the loss of jobs in this country and the number of people who have been forced to take lower paying jobs just to get by takes even more money out of the system due to lower contributions as a percentage of the wage earned.

SS is the ONLY government program that actually benefits the American people, and should be the LAST thing that the government denies. Put the borrowed money back, with interest and penalty, and if that still isn't enough, budget less for "homeland security" and the defense dept and put it to use benefiting the American people.

Come to think of it, where did the money for Bush's stimulus package come from? Obviously all you have to do is call the Fed and ask them to print up more money. And don't talk to me about the deficit, Bush started out with a surplus and drove the thing to historic levels. As Reagen supposedly said when asked about his own deficit he replied "Its big enough to take care of itself".

"Let them eat cake", anyone?

edit to add; Regarding the money spent on homeland security. An interesting point was made in the Zeitgeist movie that 6,000 times, yes 6,000, die from peanut allergies a year than die from some sort of terrorist attack. I'm not saying the our national security isn't very important, I just found that stat interesting.



[edit on 7-10-2008 by zlots331]

You make it sound so easy. That is what is called "normative politics" or politics how they should be. The reason that we can spend billions in Iraq and to bail out corporations is because we borrowed that money from other countries. What would be the point to borrow to pay for a bunch of seniors that are no longer paying taxes?

"Just put it back!" you say. That is a nice idea but it has already been spent. Now the only way to cover the cost will be to raise taxes to a crippling level. Nobody has mentioned Medicare either but I will and you can throw that on top of pile too.

An "internal audit"? Are you kidding me? Over all the years that this has been going on do you think they really can or even WANT to find where all the money went? There are literally billions of dollars that are unaccounted for just in the Iraq war alone.

It is infuriating how these boomers should get what they put in but it just can't happen due to the mismanagement of funds over the past 80 years.

Thats why I will not count on it and neither should you.

The minute I received my very first paycheck and asked "what the heck is social security?" and received the answer "government takes some of your money to hold because you're too stupid to be trusted with it" I knew it was just being stolen from me at vicarious gunpoint and I would never see it again.

I was much more cynical than your average 15 year-old.

The sooner people give up on SS the better.

What really bothers me is it was started as a temporary relief program set to expire just like the AWB or the Patriot Act. We've long since gone beyond that date and now stupid people just figure SS equates to retirement. Nothing could be further from the truth.

reply to post by LostNemesis


Hell I saw this coming 18 yrs ago or something..

If you need some moron to say that SS wont be there.. sad state you live in...

Aw, Cmon now, Glen Beck isn't a complete moron! Its sad though that some of the extremely obvious things he says are turn into eye-popping news for some though.

Originally posted by zlots331
... don't come crying to me. Put it back, WITH interest and penalty for ...
the government's bad financial practices

Penalty!

Originally posted by SuperSecretSquirrel

It is infuriating how these boomers should get what they put in but it just can't happen due to the mismanagement of funds over the past 80 years.

I'm sorry that this issue has you so upset. Personally I would like to see SOME of the money that was taken out of MY paycheck for the last 35 years. Even at the same rate that was garnished at the time it should come to a tidy sum.

I agree that the system as it stands has become so bloated and mismanaged and that its demise is near. There are many people in the system that were not originally intended to receive benefits. What we will need to do is revert back to one of the systems that were in place in the past and that are actually still practiced in many cultures today.

As the elders of a society age it becomes the responsibility of the family to care for them. So as your parents age and become less able to care for themselves, the children of your family will be required to care for your parents with all the dignity and respect they deserve. In your home. No government involved. You will also be responsible for all medical costs and any other care that they may need to live out their lives in the comfort of your surroundings.

Then again, there is another custom that when a person is no longer able to contribute to society, they quietly slip away in the night and enter the wilderness to die in peace and no longer be a burden on society.



[edit on 7-10-2008 by zlots331]

If they would quit taking every single penny we make from every side ....
We would all have our own personal stash money to retire on ..
Most of us would not NEED a SS check ...

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere


The sooner people give up on SS the better.
.

NO SIR. What's next if we allow that? I take great offense at being told the government I was raised in and that my forefathers helped to settle would lie to me and that should be accepted. Certain people advocate letting the theives on Wall Street look over it for us. Maybe those same theives are in the government now.

When the government pays me back for all the money I put into Social Security I will say thank you and be done with it. I pay alot of other taxes to cover the roads, the military and the corporate bailouts. Me and the government had a deal and now people are telling me they are going to make sure I don't see the government hold up their end of the deal.

How about we all forget about being able to own guns. The sooner people let that one go the better.

Now I got your attention?

Originally posted by SuperSecretSquirrel

What would be the point to borrow to pay for a bunch of seniors that are no longer paying taxes?

Sorry, I forgot about this point that you made, must be my age creeping up on me.

I pay property tax, sales tax, phone tax, water & sewer tax, etc., and school tax (which is huge) even though I no longer have children in school. Could I have been paying for your school lunches all this time?

Originally posted by stikkinikki

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere


The sooner people give up on SS the better.
.

NO SIR. What's next if we allow that? I take great offense at being told the government I was raised in and that my forefathers helped to settle would lie to me and that should be accepted. Certain people advocate letting the theives on Wall Street look over it for us. Maybe those same theives are in the government now.

When the government pays me back for all the money I put into Social Security I will say thank you and be done with it. I pay alot of other taxes to cover the roads, the military and the corporate bailouts. Me and the government had a deal and now people are telling me they are going to make sure I don't see the government hold up their end of the deal.

How about we all forget about being able to own guns. The sooner people let that one go the better.

Now I got your attention?

Where the hell were you on September 11th, 2001, when your "beloved" government, intentionally murdered over 3000 of its own people on live television and lied about the entire thing?

What the hell is so hard about stealing SS after you murder your own people. Like it sounds harsh but honestly, are you actually this oblivious? I feel terrible for you.