It preaches self-reliance and small government, but old people still want their pittance of gubmit cheese, ie Social Security.
If they/we were intellectually honest, we would be calling on the raising of the eligibility age to 90, which is more in line with Bismark’s original plan: a little pension for those who were never expected to live long enough to ever get it.
It was meant to be a “look how generous I am” gesture with no real impact; the original designers never thought we’d live long enough to cash the checks.
Older Tea Partiers (and all of us) should be petitioning the government to write everyone a one time check for the exact amount they were forced to contribute, plus maybe 5% interest if that is do-able.
And then the program should be abolished.
Andrea, you should really look upon this as a bad investment and write it off. You admit yourself you will never get it back when you are old anyhow, and the amount you get will be a pitance.
Social Security was a Ponzi scheme, like Madoff’s. All those suckers want their money back too, some even want the government to make them whole. But life sucks, then you die. Social Security gives all of us a false sense of security and (along with high taxes) is part of what prevents people from saving for retirement themselves.
It is a sickness at the heart of society. If we want things to change, we can’t just bitch about politicians. We have to look at ourselves and our own sense of entitlement.
