Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Social Security and the individual's responsibility

braisler · 03-02-2009, 12:50 PM

OP here.

I appreciate the input from everyone. I haven't reached a decision on what to do directly. My gut is telling me to just let it ride. As another poster intoned, as long as I stay here at this job, no flags are likely to be raised. If they are, I can plead ignorance and work it out then.

Willravel has the pleasant idea that SS can be and should be fixed. I doubt that it can and I don't think that it should be. I'm rather in agreement with Cynthetiq that we should all save for our own damn retirement. And if we weren't wasting money on SS we'd have more to put away ourselves. And, yes, I'm sure that someone might drag out a sob-story or two about some impoverished elderly person who just fell on hard times. I think the greater reality is that Social Security wiped out the desire in people to be self-sufficient and save for themselves and their own family. 'Hey, the Gub'mint will take care of us when we're old. Why waste our efforts in saving any money?'

One of the ways that I have helped myself to feel a bit less depressed about the terrible drain of Social Security is that my grandparents are getting some social security benefits right now. But then I get to thinking, you know, if they weren't getting social security benefits, and they needed some money and support, I'd send them some money. And so would my cousins and brother, aunts and uncles. That is, if we had control of our own money and it wasn't being taken out to fund SS. Then I get a bit depressed about the state of SS again.

As for the privatization argument... the reason that politicians aren't trotting it out right now is because they and their constituents are incredibly short sighted. Yes, the market is down right now from where it was last year or even 10 years ago, but this is retirement savings that we are talking about. The longest of the long-term investments. Over the time frame that people should look at for retirement, the Dow is up and up big. Look at 20 years ago, April 1989, the Dow was at 2440. A more realistic time frame of 40 years for retirement take us to April 1969, when the Dow was 873. With that perspective (the one that all retirement investors should have) the Dow at 7000 doesn't look quite so dire.

03-02-2009, 12:50 PM	#12 (permalink)
braisler Addict Location: Midway, KY	OP here. I appreciate the input from everyone. I haven't reached a decision on what to do directly. My gut is telling me to just let it ride. As another poster intoned, as long as I stay here at this job, no flags are likely to be raised. If they are, I can plead ignorance and work it out then. Willravel has the pleasant idea that SS can be and should be fixed. I doubt that it can and I don't think that it should be. I'm rather in agreement with Cynthetiq that we should all save for our own damn retirement. And if we weren't wasting money on SS we'd have more to put away ourselves. And, yes, I'm sure that someone might drag out a sob-story or two about some impoverished elderly person who just fell on hard times. I think the greater reality is that Social Security wiped out the desire in people to be self-sufficient and save for themselves and their own family. 'Hey, the Gub'mint will take care of us when we're old. Why waste our efforts in saving any money?' One of the ways that I have helped myself to feel a bit less depressed about the terrible drain of Social Security is that my grandparents are getting some social security benefits right now. But then I get to thinking, you know, if they weren't getting social security benefits, and they needed some money and support, I'd send them some money. And so would my cousins and brother, aunts and uncles. That is, if we had control of our own money and it wasn't being taken out to fund SS. Then I get a bit depressed about the state of SS again. As for the privatization argument... the reason that politicians aren't trotting it out right now is because they and their constituents are incredibly short sighted. Yes, the market is down right now from where it was last year or even 10 years ago, but this is retirement savings that we are talking about. The longest of the long-term investments. Over the time frame that people should look at for retirement, the Dow is up and up big. Look at 20 years ago, April 1989, the Dow was at 2440. A more realistic time frame of 40 years for retirement take us to April 1969, when the Dow was 873. With that perspective (the one that all retirement investors should have) the Dow at 7000 doesn't look quite so dire.