For a long time now we’ve been hearing how the GOP would like to “fix” social security. Their idea of “fix” of course is to do away with by the time my generation would begin to collect this money that we’ve paid into for so long now. Oh, they aren't coming right out and saying that, but reading between the lines, which is not hard to do, means exactly that. From G.W. privatization plan, to last nights Ryan saying (while talking about budget cuts) “If we act soon, and if we act responsibly, people in and near retirement will be protected." What that means is that there will be NO changes to Social Security for those that in the very near future will hit that magical age, or those that are already collecting. No wonder so many older people are ok with this. It won’t effect them. However, what about all the screaming some of those older folks are doing about what we are leaving their kids and grandkids. Those “kids” are us… my generation. People like me that have paid into this system since I started working at 17 and without interruption, and paid my SS monies. What will the actual idea for us be in this arena? Will they be back to putting our money into private accounts where we could invest it? Because if that’s their idea, we can already see how well that will work. Those that are already investing had a real great time in the last two years when we lost much of our investments. If that is their plan, do they plan to back that money by the federal gov’t should we go belly up based on the their policies that will get us into a mess all over again? I somehow doubt that because that would be a “safety net” and we all know how they feel about having those.
So, here’s my idea. If they are so bent on making sure my generation does not collect the Social Security that I’ve paid into for more than half my life, then how about a one time buy out. Give me every bit of money I’ve put in over my life time and let me do what I want with it. And oh, by the way, I want it TAX FREE since they are so big on low taxes. They should no longer be able to benefit from the money I’ve been investing in this program all these years, if they don’t want to allow me to benefit from it later as was meant to be. Of course, I’d still have to invest it on my own and could still stand to lose much of it when they ignore things that are collapsing again… but I suppose at that point, at least it’ll be my problem for not watching out for it better than they think they can. However, when the majority of folks that know nothing about investing lose everything, I’m sure they’ll feel bad about them not being able to feed themselves , house themselves, cloth themselves, etc, right? Or, maybe that’s their new way of weeding out people later in life. Their own version of the “death panels” they so like to talk about.
Can’t wait to see how they try playing all of this out. Will make for great entertainment. I can’t wait even more to see how many people buy into the explanations from them. Just give me my money (and yes, it is mine… I earned it, they took it and it appears they don’t want me to get it back later). Give it to me and let me just get on with my life so I don’t have to listen to the crap any more.
