Thursday, June 18, 2009

social security = epic fail (if < 40)

Social security will be bankrupt in a couple dozen years. (Pretend to look surprised.) We've visited this topic before, but I actually enjoy beating dead horses. It's a good core workout when done properly.

I am most amused by the gall of this quote:

Besides, while workers in their 20s and 30s may not get a full return on their payments, they do benefit from older workers' and retirees' innovations, says Bernard Wasow, senior fellow and economist at the Century Foundation. "The premise that there shouldn't be any transfer between generations doesn't make much sense. All the inventions, improvements, and technology that my generation generates will be passed on to my kids," he says.

What? So previous generations enjoy the innovations of previous generations and get social security but my generation only gets one of those things? What do innovations created predominantly by people when they are working have to do with paying money to people who are retired? Nice attempt at connecting the ideas, but that sleight of hand is a bunch of crap. Besides, I'm not exactly enamored with the recent crop of financial innovations that were cooked up recently. I guess the 'transfer between generations' he references is about the massive amount of debt that we've managed to accumulate.

My social security program goes something like this:
* Pay money into the system.
* Expect nothing from the system. Ever.
* Save a lot.
* Save some more.
* Buy guns and ammo.
* Retire?

4 comments:

buickguy said...

Hmmmm. You sound angry to me. Reasonable reaction, that is.

Brian said...

No, not angry, surprisingly enough. Well, not today at least. My feelings on the entire fiscal future of the country sort of oscillate between apathy and outrage as I try to decide which attitude would be most constructive.

Anonymous said...

Leave the guns and ammo.

Anonymous said...

Social Security is the largest government sanctioned Ponzi Scam. And you don't have any choice. With Madoff or Stanford, at least you don't have to invest with them if you don't want to.