Translation: I'm all for shared sacrifice as long as "other people" are the ones sharing it.
This is why we are screwed. Everyone knows we need to get our fiscal house in order, but almost no one is willing to support anything that requires that they share in the pain. As long as ONLY "other people" feel the pain, we support it. But we are collectively too damn selfish to accept anything that hits us.
I disagree. It has nothing to do with being 'selfish'. It has to do with people who've made their financial plans over a long period of time. Suddenly we're changing the rules on them??
In this new ear of 'fairness'?
If you're 59, 60, 61 years old and have factored in your SS as a key element of your income; to have it suddenly changed on you...
If people have 15, 20, 25 years to adjust to new rules, that's one thing. To screw those with a 4-5 year horizon...how can that be fair?
I agree with Ziggy.
Life throws curves at us all the time, that doesn't change just because we're older or retired.
If you're "59, 60, 61 years old" or "with a 4-5 year horizon" and it comes as a surprise to you that you're Soc Sec benefits
may not be what earlier projections have shown, you're not paying attention. "Suddenly" - you must be joking...
No way around it, the more we exempt older generations, the more our children/grandchildren will have to pay in. And we already know they're going to get less of a benefit than generations that have come before them - who's getting "screwed?" What's "fair" or "selfish" for
all concerned?
Soc Sec is a paygo system, has little to do with 'I paid in, I earned it.'
We paid into the SS system... there was a promise to pay benefits when we retired... with the people starting to retire now, we paid in more than enough to pay our benefits.... IOW, we are not getting back more than we put in....
Now, the gvmt. decided to take all that money and spend it on OTHER things... they hid the true deficiet spending over the past few decades from the people... we were like Greece... spending more than we could afford...
This was known by the gvmt and some of the people.... that at some time the gvmt would have to borrow a lot of money to pay off the promised benefits.... but now that the time has come, the gvmt has said 'We are broke and it is because of your greed on wanting to get paid what we promised'.... so the one part of me says 'that is not my problem, pay me what I EARNED'... it is not some gift from above.... but something that I paid into for many years....
It wasn't hidden from any responsible adult citizen, we've been running deficits for decades, it's a matter of public record. Since 1962, the debt limit has been increased 74 times by Congress, and 10 of those increases have taken place in the past 10 years — with the debt limit increasing from $5.95 trillion in 2000 at the end of the Clinton presidency to the present level of $14.29 trillion. Anyone who didn't know we were running deficits hasn't been paying attention AT ALL, no excuse.
In fact, I'd say we've known (or should have) all along and yet demanded our politicians do nothing about it by electing folks who won't raise our taxes or cut our benefits, in fact we expect benefits to improve. Any candidate who told us the truth, wouldn't have a chance to get elected - and we're still voting this way NOW! We're still falling for being bribed with our own money even today...
...
