Antisocial
I haven't been in any hurry to approach the whole Social Security reform issue as I'm just way too cynical about it. Hard to believe that I'd be cynical about something, eh? Well there’s a first time for everything. Social Security is actually one of the few political subjects where I actually have always taken cues from my father, who used to tell my brothers and I "You boys better get well-paying jobs, because someone's going to have to pay to take care of your mother and I, and there’s a lot of us in our generation and not enough in yours, so don't expect Social Security to be around when you need it."
As a result, from the day I got my first paycheck, I've assumed I'll never see a penny of that Social Security deduction, so anything marginally better than the Republican's most dismal projections of doom-and-gloom for the program (Bush calls it bankrupt by 2042) is a relative ray of sunshine for me. The very notion that I might see any return on that money is really an unexpected surprise. Although I also consider it perhaps a moot point as I can't actually picture myself living long enough to see that money anyway. So I say; live it up, baby boomers, your retirement is on me.
To me, the only certainty is, whether deliberately or coincidentally (does anyone think there ARE coincidences with B*sh?), this entire privatization scheme is distracting us all from the fact that our tanks will soon be lining up along the Iraq-Iran border. And hey, why not? How are our military families supposed to cash in on B*sh's proposed war-zone death benefit increase if there aren't more war zones to die on?
As a result, from the day I got my first paycheck, I've assumed I'll never see a penny of that Social Security deduction, so anything marginally better than the Republican's most dismal projections of doom-and-gloom for the program (Bush calls it bankrupt by 2042) is a relative ray of sunshine for me. The very notion that I might see any return on that money is really an unexpected surprise. Although I also consider it perhaps a moot point as I can't actually picture myself living long enough to see that money anyway. So I say; live it up, baby boomers, your retirement is on me.
To me, the only certainty is, whether deliberately or coincidentally (does anyone think there ARE coincidences with B*sh?), this entire privatization scheme is distracting us all from the fact that our tanks will soon be lining up along the Iraq-Iran border. And hey, why not? How are our military families supposed to cash in on B*sh's proposed war-zone death benefit increase if there aren't more war zones to die on?
posted by ab at 2/09/2005
2 Comments:
damn you Brukowski, you stole my thunder. i figger i won't see a dime from Unky Sam, and i plan to have enough saved up so it won't be a problem. let me add the following advice to your readers: if you have some way of saving something, do it now. i saw a quote attributed to Einstein - i believe falsely - which read, "Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe." find some way of direct-depositing your paycheck and automatically taking some percentage out so you never even see it.
also, i have heard statistics that men who work a physically active job and retire at 65 typically die at 67. in other words, never ever retire. i'm unemployed and broke now and the prospect of spending the latter chunk of my life with nothing to do and no money makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a pencil.
Der Kater
Er, yes. I did say I was way too cynical about it. And I tend to exaggerate, if you hadn't noticed. I know that even 'Bankrupt' doesn't mean the system will run dry - far from it. No matter what the coming months and future decades may hold, I don't really think I/we will receive zero social security return. Unless perhaps we are all blown away in some sort of Iranian or North Korean nukeyaler attack, which I'm told could happen any day now.
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