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…”Without recommending it, what would happen if the whole program were ended within 1—2 years, including payments to retirees? Undoubtedly the transition costs on individuals would be high. They would have to make many new arrangements and re-order their lives considerably. They would survive. Worse catastrophes have been survived. But with planning, the transition costs could be lowered considerably.”
When he writes that, “Worse catastrophes have been survived” consider that not everyone survived those other worse catastrophes. One of the things many People fear most is the old & infirm left to rot on the streets. How does the system transition without that happening?
…”All of these anti-people and anti-family provisions need to be changed in order to get society back on a proper footing. The tax code disrupts normal human relationships. It is an abomination every line of which shows what we as a society have come to. We are a long, long way from where we should be.” […]
…”What is unrealistic is to hope that the ill effects and problems will go away by tinkering with tax rates or retirement benefits or wishing them upon someone else.”
However; can taxes be used as a transitional phase towards a better system in order to avoid the old & infirm left to rot on the streets until private charities can be re-established?
[Translation: “Let’s use the state to redistribute wealth so that people who can’t/won’t take care of themselves, or don’t have families, or who are too proud to rely on the private charities that the government monopoly has put out-of-business can be taken care of….”]
Key words: a transitional phase.
“Screw the improvident and irresponsible.” <- let them rot in the streets & die slowly?
…”Americans will rally around a good cause. [eventually, but not all at once] Americans would fill the breach in the incomes of these retirees. The transition period would be planned for in advance so as to make it smoother. No one need starve or be thrown into the streets to beg. If everyone knew that the system would end in 18 months, for example, those in need could apply to local charities who could then immediately begin soliciting pledges and making collections. […]
Many now wish to postpone the inevitable, hopefully until after they die. If we stop the system sooner than they expected, we and they will have to adjust. What shall be done with or for this group of people so that their situations are made bearable? […]
…the program would continue paying out to all the current enrollees as is now done. As they died off, the program would wind down. This solution involves much higher taxation and/or borrowing in the transition to the program’s demise. It is therefore a compromise solution, but it is a solution nonetheless in the sense that it eliminates the Social Security program.”…
And, I think – That – is where Donald Jeffries was coming from in his article, ‘Life on the Social Security Plantation’.
Hello, Helot!
This is a matter that has long occupied a place in my mind, seeing as my own mother, who is currently 98 has long been a SS.Medicare recipient as her sole source of sustenance. What would she do if if it all just stopped tomorrow? -especially the tens-of-thousands of dollars bills she incurrs when she has to go to the hospital?Approaching such an issue from that standpoint though uses emotionalism to justify oppression, control, and robbery.
Our observation should rather be of how such a diabolical system and tyranny, which claims to ‘liberate and help’ people, has instead created these circumstances where so many have become dependent upon oppression, tyranny and robbery. Even with SS. my mother really wouldn’t be able to live anywhere but the poor-house (err…or it’s modern-day equivalent: Subsidized housing) were it not for the fact that she lives in her own mobile home on my property. There aren’t too many places in America where one can live on $1300 a month….unless you live in low cost-of-living area and own your own place outright and only have to pay for food and utilities.
But, were it not for all of the subsizied housing, and Medicare, just think how much cheaper everything would be?! Used to be that if you were poor, you could find cheap housing…just not the best. Today, that’s not the case, because if every landlord can get market-value rent (from the tyrants who destroyed the actual market) by signing up to accept subsidized tenants. Medical bills could be a TENTH of what they currently are were it not for Medicare/Medicaid/government-controlled insurance/etc. and the limiting of competition caused by Uncle’s “regulations” which decree how many hospital beds there can be in a given area, etc.
Had it not been for SS being created when my mother was 12 years old, perhaps she would have been more careful to marry men who were responsible good providers, instead of men who were at the bottom of the totem pole and never had anything.
It’s got to stop; it’s going to stop- whether through inflation, or economic crash or whatever, and we’re always being warned that “The system is bankrupt and can’t continue” (I’ve been hearing this for over forty years, but in reality, there is nothing to bankrupt, since as long as there are tax slaves to mulct, there will be loot to be redistributed) -yet no one ever prepares. They could announce that it is going to end next year..or in 5 years..or in 30 years…yet no one would ever do anything differently, they would just wait for the end and then scramble, as those who are fully dependent upon such a system always have, which is why they are dependent upon such a system.
The carnage that the system has created though- such as the destruction of the close family, enabled by the hope that the state will provide, so one can just dump their kids in daycare, or even have kids that they can’t afford to support nor care for (Which will also be provided for by the state) and the “independence” that such has created, has occurred over the course of several generations of this system being in place…and of course, such evils would not magically be cured overnight, but would also take at least as much time to rectify themselves….but as stated before, this is going to happen anyway…and IS happening…..but few seem to care or to take any steps to deal with it in their own lives. Throughout history (even with all of the entitlements!) there has always been a segment of the population which has been poor- whether through their own negligence and dysfunction or just happenstance…but there have always been also been those who help- whether family or charities, etc. Things actually worked a lot better under the latter…and it tended to discourage irresponsible behavior and illegitimate kids in non-families…whereas the former only encourages such. “You get more of what you subsidize”.
The dysfunction of the SS system, and it’s truly absurd economics is really illustrated by the example of my mother’s first husband: A guy who worked at nothing but the lowest-paying jobs from c. 1940 to 1980. I estimated what he “paid in”, being generous and then even doubling it, just for good measure, vs. what was collected by him for 23 years; two ex-wives; two disabled daughters, in terms of actual payments (One daughter and my mother collecting ‘on his account’ for over 40 years now) + Medicare…and it comes out to many millions of dollars…magically from (at best-case scenario) $20K having been paid in. <$20K (in actuality, closer to $10K, I doubled it) somehow entitles one to many millions paid by others……an economy that can only exist via government- because in real (sound) economics which are not dependent upon coercion and robbery such metrics are no more possible than a rabbit laying an egg.
https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2023/03/what-if-there-are-no-solutions.html
RE: “Our observation should rather be of how such a diabolical system and tyranny, which claims to ‘liberate and help’ people, has instead created these circumstances where so many have become dependent upon oppression, tyranny and robbery.”
Possibly. It’s always good to know what caused the problem in the first place.
Or, perhaps, the focus should be how to get out of this mess?Quite a bit like walking through muck, your boot catches, and you feel your foot sliding out of your boot as you try to take the next step?
Anyway,… Fak! I got too many tabs open, & too much to do,… and, a pretty distraction…
Thankks for the input, I’ll re-read it in the A.M..
Helot, there’s no painless way to rid us of such a system. There’s no painless way to continue it either. Sometimes, you just have to stop doing what is wrong and do what is right (So of course, this crapola will just continue till we go bust/get nuked/fade away). It’s been in place for so lomng, and has so affected the economy, the family, people’s lives and plans, etc. that it’s effects will be felt for many years even if it stopped tomorrow- or those effect will will continue to unnaturally wreak havoc and make things worse and make exit even harder if it continues- so it’s a no-win situation- and those who engineered such a system, specifically the part that makes people feel as though they have a stake in it and a right to it, were evil geniuses, as they made it so that no one will ever dare to suggest ending it, and because it has so effected so many aspects of life and society. It’s a self-perpetuating tyranny that people love and that few even understand.
(I’m not receiving notifications from this forum, though I’ve elected to do so- so if you’ve replied t my replies in other threads, I’m not ignoring you…just haven’t had time to manually check ’em.)
Test
RE: “(I’m not receiving notifications from this forum, though I’ve elected to do so-”
I think, it’s because the default setting of the comment box at the bottom of the thread is set to ‘REPLY TO’ the particular subject and not the last person who commented.
I noticed there’s a teeny tiny ‘REPLY’ link which appears when a person hoovers their cursor over the lower right corner of your comment box. I never noticed it before, really. Perhaps it should not be an, ‘appear on hoover’ link & should be big bold and brightly colored? Idk.
I’ll click the reply link & see if you get a notification.
OOooo! I got that one, Helot. Not sure I’m seeing what you’re referring to though- so are you getting notified when I post?
I didn’t set mine to get notifications.
…There’s a star looking icon thingie in the lower right-hand corner of each comment box. Drag your cursor (mouse?) across the area just to the left of that star icon thingie and a link should magically appear with the word, ‘REPLY’.
Ya have to be logged in to see it.
You click that ‘REPLY’ link which appears and then write a comment & hit the ‘Submit’ button, which in turn notifies that person.
I had other plans today but a snowstorm wiped that out, I’ll see if I can post an online image I saw on the LRC Blog, here:
https://lrc-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/2023/03/Long-Term-Goals-620×413.jpg
Well, that image test didn’t work, at all.
I didn’t hit the ‘REPLY’ on your comment box for the above comment.
I’ll do it with this one.
Here’s the image I wanted to post, I wonder if it will show?
I’ll be dogged gone, still didn’t work for nuthin.
I’m not going to hit the ‘REPLY’ link for this one here.
One more try at posting a photo from an online search:
https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.RrNeqtmb3MPxcviYGno1yQHaE8
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