This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog
Handout Nation: Combined Enrollment In America’s 4 Largest Safety Net Programs Hits A Record High Of 236 Million
Margaret Thatcher once said that the problem with socialism “is that eventually you run out of other people’s money”. As you will see below, the combined enrollment in America’s four largest safety net programs has reached a staggering 236 million. Of course that doesn’t mean that 236 million people are getting benefits from the government each month because there is overlap between the various programs. For example, many Americans that are on Medicaid are also on food stamps, and many Americans that are on Medicare are also on Social Security. But even accounting for that, most experts estimate that the number of Americans that are dependent on the federal government month after month is well over 100 million. And now that so many people are addicted to government handouts, can we ever return to a culture of independence and self-sufficiency?
On Wednesday, CNN ran an editorial by Bernie Sanders in which he called President Trump’s proposed budget “immoral” because it would cut funding for government aid programs.
But is it moral to steal more than a hundred million dollars from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day to pay for these programs?
Of course the answer to that question is quite obvious.
There will always be some Americans that are unable to take care of themselves, and we should want to help them.
But as millions upon millions of Americans continue to jump on to the safety net, eventually we are going to get to the point where it is going to break.
As I mentioned above, the combined enrollment in the four largest safety net programs has reached a new all-time record high…
–More than 74 million Americans are on Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program).
–More than 58 million Americans are on Medicare.
–More than 60 million Americans are on Social Security.
–Approximately 44 million Americans are on food stamps. And even though we are supposedly in an “economic recovery”, this number is still dramatically higher than the 26 million Americans that were on food stamps prior to the last financial crisis.
When you add the figures for those four programs together, you get a grand total of 236 million, and that doesn’t even count any of the other federal programs which are helping people.
Once again, there is overlap in enrollment between these various programs, but even accounting for that most experts believe that well over a third of the country is currently receiving benefits from the government each month.
How far down this road do we have to go before people start calling it “socialism”?
As I was writing this, I was reminded of one of Benjamin Franklin’s most famous quotes…
“When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.”
In our country today, many politicians have discovered that one of the best ways to win elections is to promise the voters as much free stuff as possible. This is one of the primary reasons why Bernie Sanders did so well. Young people loved his socialist policies, and he received more votes from Millennials in the primaries and caucuses than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton combined.
As older generations of Americans continue to die off, the Millennials will just become even more powerful politically. And considering the fact that they are far more liberal than other generations, that is a very alarming prospect…
In the minds of 80 percent of baby boomers and 91 percent of elderly Americans, communism was a major problem in years past and remains a significant concern today. But millennials, aged 16 to 20 years, see it differently. Only 55 percent of the younger generation take issue with communism, 45 percent say they would vote for a socialist and 21 percent say they’d vote for a communist.
And millennials made all that clear during the Democratic presidential primary, when many of them cast their vote for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-avowed socialist. In fact, the report credits the New England lawmaker with a “bounce” that led to less than half of millennials — 42 percent — having a favorable view of capitalism.
At this point, the Republic that our founders established is barely recognizable, and if it is going to be saved we need a conservative revolution as soon as possible.
A good place to begin would be to dramatically reduce the size and scope of the federal government, and there are some promising signs in the budget that President Trump has proposed. He wants to completely eliminate 66 federal programs, and liberals are screaming bloody murder over this.
Of course Trump’s budget is “dead on arrival” in Congress because many among his own party do not support him. Most Republicans campaign as conservatives but govern like Democrats, and it is high time that we held them accountable for that. In 2018 we are going get Trump a whole bunch of friends in Congress, and a lot of those establishment Republicans that have been betraying conservatives for years are going to have to find a new line of work.
We simply cannot afford to keep sending the same cast of characters back to Washington time after time. Just look at the debacle that the effort to repeal Obamacare has become. According to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, getting any sort of bill through the Senate is going to be extremely challenging…
Referring to behind-the-scenes work among Senate Republicans on a healthcare bill, McConnell said, “I don’t know how we get to 50 (votes) at the moment. But that’s the goal.”
Under a scenario of gathering the votes needed for passage in the 100-seat chamber, Republican Vice President Mike Pence would be called upon to cast any potential tie-breaking Senate vote.
McConnell opened the interview by saying, “There’s not a whole lot of news to be made on healthcare.” He declined to provide any timetable for producing even a draft bill to show to rank-and-file Republican senators and gauge their support.
And yet somehow when Obama was in office the Republicans in the House and the Senate were able to easily pass a bill to repeal Obamacare and get it to Obama’s desk.
Why can’t they get that exact same bill to Trump’s desk?
We definitely need to “drain the swamp” in D.C., and we can start with Congress.
But the alliance between big money and big government is going to be hard to defeat, and so if we want our country back we are going to have to fight harder than we have ever fought before.
Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years.
Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream.
If you want to know what is coming and what you can do to prepare, read his latest book [amazon text=Get Prepared Now!: Why A Great Crisis Is Coming & How You Can Survive It&asin=150522599X].
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I have yet to see folks refuse a free gift!
This Is The World’s Most Active Battlefield – Watch Cyber-War In Real-Time
“Today’s most active battlefield is not located on the ground, in the air, or on the mighty seas. It’s taking place on the internet – and, if you’re still a non-believer, spend a few minutes with the following live map to watch a representation of cyber attacks as they happen…”
“In our few minutes of watching, the United States received nearly 70% of incoming attacks…”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-24/worlds-most-active-battlefield-watch-cyber-war-real-time
Hmmmm I thought is was more than 100,000,000 if you count the phony stock market value for pensions.
I was a small business owner and paid double social security tax for 30 years.I don’t care if you say I’m part of the free shit army but I still want my money back!
I have taken note of the on-going effort by voices within the US government, as well as today in this article, to erase the very important distinction between ‘unearned’ entitlements and ‘earned’ entitlements. Wolfbay seems to partially understand this point.
Unearned entitlements are things like welfare, food stamps, tax payer funded subsidies for obongocare, school breakfast, lunch and dinner programs, obongo phones, etc.
On the other hand, when Americans have been forced by their government to contribute to Social Security and pay Medicare taxes throughout their working lives and when they are not allowed to opt out of paying these costs – for Mr. Snyder or anyone else to then turn around and claim that Americans who retire and expect to collect the benefits that they were forced to pay into are no different than lazy welfare bums or these pathetic Bernie Sanders loving Millennial parasites is an insult to every hard working, productive American citizen.
I will grant Mr. Snyder the point that Social Security was never intended to be the sole source of income for retired Americans; it was intended to be a supplement, and Americans were expected to also save and invest their money using many of the retirement planning vehicles that have been offered to them. IRAs, 401Ks, etc.
But, according to the statistics I read – it appears as if there are millions of short sighted Americans who lack the self-discipline to take advantage of these retirement oriented programs and would rather piss away a couple hundred dollars a month on cable TV subscriptions or blow money on lavish vacations or lottery tickets than to take responsibility to invest for their own retirement needs.
It is my strong suspicion that the vast and overwhelming majority of these people fall into the Bernie Sanders camp and due to their own lack of self discipline, they expect the rest of us to take care of them – which relieves them of the responsibility to do so themselves.
I consider such people to be parasites and if parasite infections are not dealt with aggressively, they have a tendency to eventually kill the host.
I had the maximum yearly amount of social security confiscated from my pay checks for over 30 years.
It’s my money that I earned, not an “Entitlement” as it is now called, and I want it back!
Many of ya’ll don’t understand the word “entitlement”….that is any payment from the govt you get simply by meeting the requirements for that program. In the case of social security, that means you reach a certain age, etc.
All you have to do is sign up for benefits, and you’re entitled to them.
There are people that never paid a dime into it that receive benefits (non-working spouses, for example)….but they get paid because they meet the requirements set, and thus, are ‘entitled’ to get paid.
As for paying in, hell, it is, and always was, just another tax. The govt fooled you into thinking you were setting money aside for retirement by the way they sold the tax and send out annual statement like it’s some kind of account, but in really, IT’S JUST FREAKING ANOTHER TAX. You ain’t getting it back anymore than you’re getting your local property or sales tax back.
Get over it.
The Working U.S. Citizen and their families pay into Medicare and Social Security. Yes it is a ponzi scheme.
Medicaid, food stamps, and some of the social security but very low, are full entitlements.
1. We the citizens, with the energy, need to put on the voting ballots, that in terms of income tax, social security, medicare, the companies we work for ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE OUT ANY MONEY, each citizen must do it themselves. This will all all citizens to fully understand the impacts.
2. We the citizens need to implement a Lottery Selection system for our political leaders. This way, no political parties, we are all on the same side, and the Lottery Selection will be random and no one will be able to pay money to these individuals prior because of no Campaigning. The political positions will need to be well defined in terms of job requirements, this can take time, with corrections each term. No need for Term Limits because the chance of getting selected in a lottery selection system is next to zero. Thus, since necessity is the mother of invention, the different method will be workable and figured out.
3. Government staff, needs to have a 5 year maximum length. Lois Lerner showed us that having career government positions goes to treasonous thought process. This goes for City, County, State and Federal. We need high turnover to assure of stopping corruption. Today, our system has taken us to maximum corruption all the way to the top.
I too put in double in SS owning a business for 25 years when others paid only half of what I paid, and I haven’t drawn SS yet.
If they let me put it into sound investments since I was 16, I would be able to live off that, but that would be illegal because SS is the government needs a slush fund that they steal from and never pay back. Because of their underhanded dealings with SS, it is part of the $106 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
My mother-in-law moved to the US many years ago, never worked a day of her life here but got her SS card and is getting a monthly check, even now after moving back to her home country with no intention of ever coming back to the US, is still getting a check. Oh that makes me so angry. And I know there are a lot of people like her milking the system taking our money out while having put absolutely nothing in. What a totally broken system it is.
I agree totally. Social Security was paid into by us. The government borrowed (stole) that money from our future. It’s not an entitlement, it is ours. Now there is an argument that some draining the resources don’t belong there….I agree somewhat.
No, it’s a Ponzi scheme.
How else would you explain Ida Mae Fuller (first person to collect SS) paying in less than $25, and collecting nearly $25,000 over her retired years ?
No investment pays that kind of return for that kind of pay in. None.
Therefor, the first payee got “OPM”…..other people’s money, not hers…..and so have most every recipient since, unless they happened to die right after beginning collecting.
It is a ponzi scheme but we paid into it massively. Most of my life I exceeded or was in spitting distance of the maximum. It isn’t a welfare “entitlement”.
Social Security Act passed in 1935 was originally meant for poor elderly people who didn’t have a family to take care of them when markets and unforeseen disasters took a toll on the elderly who worked for a living most their lives and lost everything in the stock market crash of ’29. It paid directly to the workers.
When the Social Security program was started in 1935, the average lifespan was 61 years old. Considering that the average age for retirement has remained consistently around 65 until now, many beneficiaries in the early years of the program didn’t receive SS and the remainder were receiving payment for a much shorter time.
I’m on your side. I did the same thing. I have contributed far more to the government than I have taken. My social security and other benefits are not “free shit.” I paid big time for those benefits.
Amen Brother! When Billy wasn’t sticking his willie between groupie legs he was withdrawing social security funds for a cash blow job into the treasury for shrinking the federal deficit. Billy got budget surplus bragging rights and we got raped. But don’t complain, it’s not patriotic and definitely not smart in a well funded surveillance state. In the spirit of Memorial Day weekend, THANKS FOR BEING SERVICED!
This article unfortunately mixes welfare payments with retirement annuities Social Security and Medicare. Everyone working has paid into those programs for decades in order to fund their annuities.
Because congress has created a problem the recipients of those annuities should be ridiculed or mocked for takers?
Micheal Snyder would do himself a favor if he rewrote this article and issued an apology to those who are receiving their annuities.
I paid in double social security tax for 30 years. You can call me part of the free s–t army but I still want my money back!
Amen Brother! When Billy wasn’t sticking his willie between groupie legs he was withdrawing social security funds for a cash blow job into the treasury for shrinking the federal deficit. Billy got budget surplus bragging rights and we got raped. But don’t complain, it’s not patriotic and definitely not smart in a well funded surveillance state. In the spirit of Memorial Day weekend, THANKS FOR BEING SERVICED!
ITS OVER
WE NEED A NEW COUNTRY
Not a gift…transfer of stolen property.
“free gift is redundant”- all gifts are free
Dont forget the other Freeshit Army of Freeloaders called the MICM – Military Industrial Complex Mafia that pillages and plunders the US Treasury of about $700 Billion Annually. Why without perpetual non stop wars they would go hungry. And we sure cant have that can we now? I happen to be one of those Tax Payers the Government is Dependent on. And will throw me in jail if I fail to pat. What a Country.
…hold on there Mr. Eagle. I worked for 40 years, was forced to participate in the Social Security Scam, and had no control over whether the corrupt Congress and Bill Clinton stole the trillions from the SS Trust Fund. I was found to be genetically epileptic at the age of 49…and was told that I’d been having…”unobserved seizures throughout my life. I then…(unknowingly)… drove off a 200 foot cliff at 70 mph. I have days in which I endure multiple-seizures…and which I engage in incredible post-seizure behaviors…but have no memory of having done so. I should have been “disabled” my entire life, and was lucky to have never killed anyone during my 25 year, international US DoD career. I was forced to pay for the SS, as well as my private plan to guard against these thieves…so it wasn’t “free”…and it’s no an …”entitlement”. My message to our corrupt government… “I bought and paid for the coverage, now pay up and quit trying weasel out of paying what is due.
RJ O’Guillory
For those of you interested in financial preparedness, this from Jim Rickards, whom I highly respect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esW2rw1l-48&list=TLGGwklb2WQT5cMyNTA1MjAxNw
It’s about 40 minutes, but will give you a great overview of where we are, how we got here, and where we are going. Rickards is highly qualified, and was lead counsel for Long Term Capital Mgmt back in the late 1990s, full of Nobel Prize winners, Ph.Ds, etc.. and which promptly almost blew up the whole world economy
Thanks Test! Will check this one out later today!
Mac
Mac, for the first time ever, I have to take my hat off to Michael Snyder. He came up with a very good article for a change. We can’t possible be too far from the ‘breaking point’ he refers to. It’s a situation that’s not permanently sustainable. A house of cards can stand for only so long.
While walking my dog tonight up and down the block on my street in Small Town USA, I counted the amount of people living in the houses just facing my street on my block.
Approx 50 people, 10 children, the rest adults.
Out of these 50 peeps, two gardens of a size to provide for the family living in that house. One putter-in-it garden and one tiny, little tomato patch. That’s it.
Two houses w/o a garden have a sizable swimming pool. Water storage.
2/3 of the houses have guns that I know of, including Mayor, TBI, Park Ranger, Retired Police Chief.
3 are elderly widows.
Mercy. 50 people. I know most have no food supplies.
Mercy.
My street is doomed.
Multiply that by 9 out of 10 streets in the Late Great U.S.A. …
I used to live in L.A. and 99% of the people where I lived were just a bunch of retarded left wing parasites. They had nothing to help ensure their own survival. No food, no gardens, no survival skills, no money, no brains, no morals, nothing. When the SHTF they won’t last long. Good riddance I say.
Just because they have no provisions, doesn’t necessarily mean they haven’t thought about it.
I heard a 14 year old boy (who lives in a welfare home) discussing the TV show “The Walking Dead” with some companions. He said he would have to “group up” with his buddies if the shtf. Their first target would be a pawn shop, so they would have guns and ammo.
Then, they would search for places they thought had food.
Not a very good SHTF plan, but it’s commonly held.
Turning into a little predatory gang is not going to a valid community asset when the time comes.
They need to be thinking along the lines of community defense, something completely different.
Coming over to my place to eat when you’re hungry is not a good plan.
Nobel Prize winners you say?
Wasn’t Obola a Nobel Prize winner? And Al Gore too? That right there completely shames any and all Nobel Prize winners IMO.
Good point, BMoe!!! And the LTCM PH.Ds and Nobel winners almost blew away the whole world economy in 1998. Obungler and Al Gore were “merely” venal frauds. You can start with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management to get an overview if you have forgotten, but suffice to say, for those that have forgotten, this was very similar to 2008, except a decade earlier, and came VERY close to shutting down the world economy.
Solution to these crises? Austrian economics.
yet they STILL haven’t “repossesed” those nobel’s….one day nobel will hand out a prize for EVIL, once they figger out what obomber did to U.S….immediately followed by his tar-and-feathering by the people.
Jim Rickards predicts gold will reach #10,000 an ounce (although he doesn’t provide a target date). He also advises to invest in land and fine art.
More specifically, Don, Rickards explicitly says to ONLY put 10% of your wealth in gold, as insurance. He is very explicit about this. If he “knew” it was going to 10k, he would say put everything in AU. He didn’t, and doesn’t. He doesn’t have a crystal ball. However, he certainly is one voice to take into consideration.
I invested in a fair amount of fine art. Unless you can find the 1 in a million person who understands it, appreciates it, or can afford it you will be stuck with it for life. It has no utilitarian value. Realizing this now, I would have stuck to all Prescious Metals. Silver mostly. I did flip a nice pink alabastor marble womans torso statue for $1750 that I only paid $1000 for 10 yrs earlier. But I got lucky and found that Doctor that was spitting cash out of her ass like skittles. I have loads of signed oil painting sitting to be sold. So in my opinion, skip the fine art and go with main stream PM’s. Trust me on this. Oh and Im sitting heavy in Signed Sports Memorabilia too that is not selling now either. My signed baseballs are Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Nolan Ryan, Michael Jordan, and a few others. Values are way down. The counterfeiters out there diminish the trust factor and pricing in that sector as well.
Margaret Thatcher once said that the problem with socialism “is that eventually you run out of other people’s money”.
Heck, we ran out of ‘other pepole’s money’ years ago….the FED has simply been creating it, buying Treasury debt with it, and storing that debt in the basement to be shredded at some future date.
Some years in the past, nearly 50% of federal spending was simply newly created ‘money’, not tax or fee revenue. Whole thing is a total joke. The ONLY reason you pay any federal tax is to give some semblance of keeping a straight face on a complete joke…because, if they can print 50% of spending needs, they could obviously print (digitize really) 100%.
The real question is why the rest of the world keeps letting us get away with this stupid crap, by accepting our dollar as worth something in exchange for real stuff. When they finally stop doing that, only then will we be in trouble.
The Fed is an air pump for a balloon that has100,000,000 holes in it?
Nice post, Andy!
Twenty trillion $$$$ in debt is so far beyond spending other people’s money, it’s making slaves of them and their children for life.
Thus we even need to have the debate about Social Security running out of money.
PTPO, when the EBT cards stop working and the checks stop coming TSHTF.
BH76, the day those EBT cards stop working will be the greatest day for this country. It has to happen, and sooner the better to get it over with.
blackMoe, agreed. It’s got to happen. “The Great Culling” WILL take place regardless.
mostly because the rest of the world is doing also
“We can’t expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have communism.
– attributed to the late Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
Also fro Khrushchev:
“We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within.”
“The press is our chief ideological weapon” No duh!
And finally, this one: “We say the name of God, but that is only habit.” (Or as GK Chesterton purportedly said, “When men cease to believe in God, they don’t believe in nothing, but anything.”
The problem of believing in God is, that you then fail to believe in yourself, which then you are no more than a common slave to a fabricated belief system.
The more you believe in Religion the dumber you become, as it replaces all rational thought or basic common sense.
The brilliant Victor Davis Hansen, professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno, currently Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in classics and military history at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His comments on the idiocy of multiculturalism:
“Under globalization, the West seeks to spread its values along with its iPhones, as if Western values were far preferable to the alternatives.
But a chief tenet of globalized multiculturalism is to not judge other cultures by “arbitrary” Western standards. Many Western elites implicitly believe that their own ideas about democracy, treatment of minority groups and equality under the law are superior to the alternatives elsewhere — and some expect the rest of the world to eventually look like Malibu, Palo Alto or the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
So if Iran or Chechnya oppresses gays, or if traditional Arab societies institutionalize female genital mutilation, are they homophobic and misogynist, or merely different????”
Nope, no answer from the fascist left. Nor will their be, as no answer is possible.
Quote from https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2017/05/25/has-globalism-gone-off-the-rails-n2331256?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Waitafuckingsecond I PAID INTO Social Security. Not that I had a say in it…
How is this welfare?
Not my fault if they can’t run a budget without stealing from it…
I’ve been paying into it since I was 16 and they call it an entitlement.
Social inSecurity is a Ponzi scheme. You don’t get out what you put into it. Your money paid into it doesn’t pay for your future, it pays for someone else’s past. Any system designed like that is guaranteed to fail.
Correct Moe.
Google Ida Mae Fuller….the very first person to collect a SS check. She paid in around $25, and collected $25,000 over the course of her retired years.
No way, no how, any ‘investment’ does that….so it had to be Other People’s Money she was getting….as did, and does, nearly everyone else, unless they happen to die right after retiring.
read the book by Commander George Lincoln Rockwell called “White Power”.
This book explains what Communism is and why you should resist it with every fibre of your being. Another book to read on the subject has been written by Dr. David Duke called “The Secret Behind Communism”.
I’ll try to explain. In order to understand Communism, one needs to examine the taboo subjects. We have been brainwashed into thinking a certain way about a race of people who are biologically susceptible to delusional paranoia. This people is very closely genetically related being on average, all, regardless of Country or division, all forth cousins. Some are fifth or sixth cousins, and some are second or third cousins. First cousins sometimes marry and have children. This close relationship and its laws have made for an extreme loyalty to one another and a contempt for outsiders. This self imposed separation from the rest of humanity results in many manifestations, one of which is Communism.
Communism is, simply put, a monetary scheme pretending to be an egalitarian political utopia where workers are as good as royalty, everyone works and shares. But the reality of Communism is murder and theft. Theories are not necessary because we have real life examples. Everywhere communism was instituted, the leaders of the Country were brought down regardless of the type of government. After removing the old leadership, the new Communists would kill the best and brightest. These killings eliminate competition, and they terrorize the people to the point that causes a psychological breakdown. The masses bend to the new leaders out of fear, but then (what has been called “the Stockholm Syndrome”) the people grow to accept and admire their captors. Children are most vulnerable and begin killing their own parents for this new Communist State.
In the meantime, the wealth of the Country is stolen. This is one of the main purposes of Communism.
How did Communism begin. Who are these people who promote Communism. They are the people who no one can talk about. They are in Power in America now. They own and control already. What they want is more; More money, more power.
Read the Books. “White Power” is free on the Internet.
There is a thirty minute video of “The Secret Behind Communism”. By Dr. David Duke on YouTube. Also Duke has a website.
These people are slandered primarily because they effectively counter Communism, and expose it for the dangerous scam it is.
__
White Power!
I do not consider Social Security an entitlement if you worked and pain into it all your life then retired. It is an entitlement for those who claim false disability and SSI.
You were forced to pay, now I want some of that SS money ? back. But like my daddy always said,”$hit in one hand and ‘want’ in the other and see which hand fills up first.”
Agree 100%. If your are not disabled….you collect proportionally to what you paid in. If you chose to not work or even try…..”0″.
You got that right. How can something be an entitlement when you are forced to pay into it?
You were “forced” to pay into it because you were lied to. You were told that you were a “U.S. citizen, a U.S.person, a “person.” You are none of those things, unless you live in DC, were born in one of the territories, are a legal entity or are an employee of the UNITED STATES INC. It’s a long and complicated story of deception, but it was your responsibility to peel back the layers of lies and deception. You weren’t forced, you were tricked. Now, who’s responsible for that?
I too reject alms for the poor. We paid into social security as a social contract. It was self funding but I guess having it stolen thus turns it into an entitlement. The 9 trillion the Pentagon cannot account for would top it up nicely and therein lies the rub. The jackboot on your face rub.
I worked and paid into it for years, i bet by the time im old enough to draw there wont be anything to draw on
Nailbanger, you nailed it again. I’ve believed the same thing for the last 20 years and just planned on working til’ I drop.
That is the best way to think about it. As a big sinkhole that you threw money into.
So make other plans for yourself and your family. Independent of the government.
I agree with you.
It isn’t as if it was voluntary and you had the option of investing that money -your own earned money- in something else with a higher rate of return and the balance when you die something your children can inherit as well.
Social Security is a socialistic program. Anything you put into it is NOT in an account of any sort for you. It is against the law to have an account for you. Anything you give to the Government is considered a GIFT by law. I know as I have a law background in this. When ever they decide to call it quits it’s over. And no one can ask for anything back as it is not there.
Tar and feathers comes to mind, also long range head shots
I didn’t have a choice to “give” it to the government, they “took” it. I don’t call that a GIFT, I call it extortion!
Whether or not people say “I contributed, so I am owed it,” is finally immaterial. I, too, paid into SS (and Canada’s CPP) for DECADES. But the truth is, if the money isn’t there, they will cheat you out of it one way or another. A long time ago the budget director back 30 years or so ago (I think he was being questioned by Sen. Proxmire) told congress that “People will get their money. It may not be worth anything, but they will get it.” (not a direct quote, but close).
I’ve spent a lifetime being cheated and swindled, mostly by leftists. I don’t expect this will change. The plus side is it has made me more self reliant, more realistic (none of this snowflake horse manure for me!). Truth is, we aren’t being cheated half as bad as the Russians who went to the gulags, the Venezuelans who resisted Chavez, the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who have rotted in Castro’s prisons, etc.
I hope I get SS/CPP. It isn’t right if I don’t. And I will fight to get what I paid in. But in the final analysis, there are a whole LOT of things that aren’t right in this fallen world, and I won’t be the first one on the planet to be cheated – again, mostly, tho not solely, by the left and the politically correct types (e.g., I pay $8k/yr in the vile People’s Socialist Thugocracy of Illinois from property taxes on just an average tract home… all to fund the free lunch types in the idiotic school system). That is pure theft. (And yes, I plan on leaving, as soon as an elderly mother is gone that I have to take care of).
In sum, I hope for the best, but plan for the worst. I agree with you folks complaining about SS here, but complaining didn’t stop Hitler or Stalin, nor did it prevent Obama from doing a lot of his idiocy (tho we did take action in many cases and stopped a lot of his garbage, and then did again and got Hilary out). Do the best you can to be as self-reliant as you can. That is the American, and Western way, until we became soft in our wealth and luxury after WWII. Our ancestors would be disgusted and ashamed of us.
Most of Social Security is an entitlement, as most people, if they live an average lifespan, will draw out many times over what they paid in.
As an example, in less than three years, I have drawn out every penny I paid in to Social Security over my working life. Starting next year, and then for the next 20, 30 or more years, I will be drawing it from current taxation.
It has always been a Ponzi scheme. The current recipients have always been drawing from the taxation of current workers. How do you think the first retirees got paid, when they hadn’t contributed but a year?
Most retirement programs are the same, you draw out more than you put in.
If it wasn’t that way a simple savings account would be the same as a retirement account.
It’s just a question of where the “more” comes from, other workers or stock or whatever else the fund invests in gains.
Only in the Gov system can they take large amounts of money from people, hold it, and give some of it back AT NO INTEREST!!.
Do your own calculations.
I have estimated that using old timey, cheesy whole life insurance policy rates (3%) on all the money my wife and I put in and the Gov continues to hold, that we will be in our MID 80s (should we live that long) before we break even.
And that includes an estimate for inflation. A dollar I put into the system in 1970 takes about 7 dollars today to be equal in buying power. So that 1970 dollar is ‘returned’ to me as about 14 CENTS.
Don’t fall for the propaganda. Anybody else who took your money and did this to you would be put in jail with Bernie Madoff.
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I paid in, too. But life is full of unfairness, particularly when the fascist left is involved, so I am also making contingency plans.
The Freeshit Army in my area works twice as hard to get on disability than working to find a regular job.
Just find a nut Job quack Doctor to classify you as disabled. I see these normal people parking in Handicap parking spots and walk just fine. I yell at them “You dont look handicap to me!!”
Here is your sign! Mar 20, 2017 US Debt of $20 Trillion Visualized in Stacks of Physical Cash
Showing stacks of physical cash in following sequence: $100, $10,000, $1 Million, $2 Billion, $1 Trillion, $20 Trillion. The faith and value of the US Dollar rests on the Government’s ability to repay its debt. “The money in the video has already been spent”.
https://youtu.be/XqUwr-Nkq9g
You’re right Texan! All I want is what I put in,nothing more. However,had I been given an option back in the day I would have put that money in a 401K. I’d be doing better today.
All you want is what you put in. Some people would outlive the amount they contributed. Then what? If they outlive benefits and end up destitute they would then qualify for other entitlements.
I’ve already drawn out what I put into Social Security. All my future checks are from current workers.
wait a minute! with a labor participation rate of around 60%, we got 6 people working for every 4 people on the public dole….YIKES!
Sitting on your ass playing video games and smoking dope while collecting welfare and selling foods stamps for drugs and alcohol is theft. Financing these lifestyles as well as total funding for people here illegally all needs to stop.
I was surprised to learn that SSI was being given to refugees that couldn’t speak English. Since when was not speaking English a disability? Well, it is now! Anyone can get SSI. Refugees, illegals, people that are dependents and have never worked a day in their life.
Learned about English-as-a-disability after reading Lee Stranhan articles about Post Falls, Idaho, and the girl that was sexually assaulted by the three refugees. Oh, and Stranahan got the boot from Breitbart. He still posts on Utube. For now. I like Stranahan, he was a straight-up reporter and willing to go to the bad parts of town to dig up the real story.
I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already!
NB and Jim, I hate to break it to you, but there’s nothing left. Current SS taxes are turned right around and used to pay everyone who is enrolled now. Biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. And I am your age, I think. There won’t be anything left by the time I am ” allowed” to retire, which is why I have honed my skills over the decades. I can keep on working as long as my hands and head let me! 😉
Johnson put SS into the general fund to help pay for Vietnam, SS is not welfare, its not an entitlement.
While governmental dependency has increased its rise is directly related to the Free Trade Agreements that have eviscerated US manufacturing and with it the backbone wages of the middle class. Its very unfair to facilitate poverty and then chastise those for being poor.
I am excited for it to break
we contribute 12.4% of our check up to $127k to SS. why do they allow 2% of the earners get another TAX BREAK? the biggest drain on our society are the tax supported public union leaches and politicians. obamas mother receives a pension of $160k for babysitting her grandkids for 8 years. they have no clue other than to demand more taxes from the few left that support the system. state after state is failing financially due to the pension promises. fuk them all.
The Federal Govt. is currently paying back to me the money I loaned to them in the form of Social Security Tax. However now they and this website is claiming it as an entitlement!! BS!! The same goes for my Medicare, plus I’m paying a monthly premium deducted from my SS. These politicians think that we can’t remember I guess!!
I’m about fed up with all the lies and corruption that is happening in Washington DC. I thought Trump was going to clean it up but I now realize he can’t or won’t be able to!
America a revolt is needed to cleanse this land!! I guess that’s why we have so many foreign troops here training.
There will always be some Americans that are unable to take care of themselves, and we should want to help them.
Agreed
Everyone else, work it out.
And for those who cannot care for themselves, how are they most effectively cared for?
I can do a thousand times more, with a million times more love, for 1% of the money than the gov’t can. Leave me my cash, and I will – and DO – care for others.
A couple years ago, my wife and I put a half black, half Mexican young 20 yr old man – very smart – through his certified medical ass’t training. We did it as Christians. No one knew, there were no deductions, no nuthin’ We did it because he was a good, smart kid who deserved a break (both his parents had been murdered a few years earlier).
Leave me my money to help others.
The demons need the parasite class to have a voting base. IMO if you don’t work you shouldn’t be able to vote to say where gov spending $ goes you didn’t pay taxes. I’ve said it before the useless eaters have all the same things working class folks do. What incentive is it to work for a slave master corporation when you can raise your family on everybody else’s dime. i hate the welfare cases I’d love to see the herd culled there just isn’t enough land and resources for people who don’t pitch in. The greedy corporate gangsters need to be wiped out too. We need a movement to eradicate the filth but bleeding hearts work overtime to protect the weak. Weak animals in nature die sooner than strong ones. after a serious shtf event who’s gonna help the weak and useless eaters not me natures reality will hit these people like a hammer. It’s what needs to happen. Im waiting for this day of reckoning. Best thing is we don’t have to do anything to usher it in the lack of leadership with a spine has the machine grinding to a halt.
Absolutely Its time to cull the useless herd. Dispose of the useless eaters. They contribute nothing. Export those classes back to their homeland being Africa, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guetamala, Cuba, Brazil, Caribbean, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Peru, Honduras, Israel, Iraq, etc.
We are only as strong as our weakest link. Half of the US population are weak links. Cut off all meds to old people, let them die naturally. Useless oxygen thieves. Same with retards, handi-capers, Trannys, fags Chews and the prison population of criminals, commie socialists get rid of all of them. Freeshit army of useless cretins. You contribute nothing. Space wasters.
Had an epiphany. If you owed a country 1 trillion dollars . And it only cost 1/2 trillion to totaly destroy that country . You could save 50%. Plus interest.
Bla bla bla.
What a collection of uneducated crappers here.
How come nobody is talking about the trillions of dollars going to the 1%.
We do that too… just not on this thread 🙂
Do we not need it to break? What’s the alternative? Gotta clean house eventually? The Tares must burn ? Who are the Tares? Isn’t it obvious?
The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat. 100 million or so dead ones would be a good start.
I digress, there are some good Democrats. Not many, but I’ve known some rather conservative Democrats, they do exist. There are NO good liberals though. Every liberal is a parasite of society.
It’s time to stop clinging to sentimental patriotism, the only rational action left is to break apart the US and form maybe 4 or 5 or 6 new countries, each country hopefully populated with like-minded people, so we all can have the culture, ethics, society, heritage, gov’t, economy, and so on what they want to live in. I for one, would choose to live in a libertarian nation; anti-war (unless attacked), anti-state, pro free markets, pro private property, pro unqualified civil rights.
For once Snyder has written a fairly accurate article not filled with hyperbole. The millennials, though stated to be the most educated generation the average millennial is unfortunately not very intelligent. Most have poor critical thinking skills, and are controlled by the herd instinct, by what everyone else says or does or believes, and especially lousy personal money skills. The majority will not act independently. We must split the country apart with each new country quickly reestablishing their societies. If not, the millennials will preside over a udisorderly process of national dissolution.
The so called leaders from the Baby Boomer generation have made a real mess of the nation’s finances, it will not be resolved, the government already knows it. It is already too late to “fix” things, the debt is astronomical, way beyond control. This will play out in general much lower standard of living, higher taxes, social upheavals, fewer jobs, lawlessness, urban and suburban decay, etc.
Let’s just divorce now so we can get it done with some peace, otherwise it will happen with chaos.
It’s written we will win in the end . But you must participate. Luke warm is a foolish virgin unprepared? We have been warned . And the true believers will believe. And the foolish virgins didn’t. Take your side. Take your pick. I’ll foolishly fill my lamps and my flasks. And take the chance it’s all a lie. Satan rules this world for now . But I’m not betting on him.
Is t I so hard to see the demons? Should we lay down and die? Or whip the money changers.? Such a overpowering force? To lose your soul? We all will answer to God. What will be your excuse?
Speaking of freeloaders..
If I’m not mistaken… Trump just told NATO allies to put up some ?or no more gubment cheese?
Other Peoples Money? Seriously? Fiat money means that the government can make unlimited money (tax credits) out of nothing. It is infinite. Only state and local governments need taxes to fund their budgets. Taxation is only for the purpose of pulling money out of the economy and to guarantee a tax burden to legitimize the currency. So tired of these media types acting like we are still on the gold standard or that somehow our government requires our tax money to pay for things. They make the stuff. Read Diagrams and Dollars Modern Money Illustrated.
Zuckerberg calling for Universal Basic Income and a new social contract.
There’s your next president. He’s getting the word out early.
That will appeal to all the Bernie Sanders free shit people and millenials.
And inner city indigenous types. The Democrats M.O. never changes.
Offer people free shit for their votes. Paid for with your tax dollars.
Bill Holter is right. The age of human jobs is over.
Zuckerberg needs to dole out shares of his money to everyone. Where the hell is all the money going to come from to give to all those that don’t work? He’s dumber than a bag of rocks..he was damned lucky but it didn’t make him smart enough to figure out everything.
Lorenzo has it perfectly clear. Transfer of stolen property(Labor). Where did I sign up for supporting the Free Shit Army. I am NOT a Socialist, I am Not a Communist. I am Not a supporter of the free shit Army. You don’t work, you don’t eat simple.
Actually,to a degree all citizens are on (forced)dependence of fed govt.@the moment.All road budgets/libraries/cops/fire/schools/,hell banks/automakers,well,you get the idea are all in part paid for with fed funds,i.e. taxes(stolen monies).
The best you can do is live outside of matrix as much as reasonable/set up become more self sufficient in farming/energy for home ect.At least support local farmers ect. were you can,keep your monies local,and,if you can find it,unincorporated township were though probably uninsurable can build a home with no property taxes except what you want to pay for keeping a basic dirt road cleared ect.
Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development. This is being implemented everywhere in the US and has bee for years. The ultimate matrix. Elected officials are accepting money and signing agreements with unelected Regional UN Connected entities to implement. Asset forfeiture, raising your taxes etc… If once agreements are signed and money received, municipalities do not enforce all 2030 Tenants, they will be sued.
Don’t worry they used county maps to rezone your private property. They will approve what you can and can not do. Private Property Rights have been REZONED! Remember Zero CO2 emissions are Sustainable.
May 25, 2017 Explaining the Collapse of Globalism and the Return to Nationalism
John Ralston Saul, CC OOnt (born June 19, 1947) is a Canadian award-winning philosopher, novelist and essayist.
https://youtu.be/w1Vngm_STr0
Nothing will change until we downsize, if not eliminate the education bureaucracy. There are 3 generations of people who have been taught they are helpless victims and that they need big government to reign in some undisclosed, unknown bogeyman. I also think that although millennials are more liberal than boomers, I personally know lots of millennials who hate walking on eggshells every time they open their mouths to express an opinion and are tired of that.
We are going to get to the point where it’s going to break? No. It’s already breaking. According to the plan. Do you know what the plan is?
The plan has been reveiled in the book of revelation. A measure of wheat for a penny. That sounds like a good deal. Until you realize a penny was a day’s pay and a measure was a cup of flour. We will be working for not enough food to keep us alive. And that’s exactly what the children of Satan want. The foolish virgins will burn. As written.
The average white male unemployed. ( is there enough jobs for everyone ) gets 200 dollars per month. 7 dollars per day ? Try eating off of 7 dollars per day. Let alone paying rent and utilities. How many people would rather die then live off food stamps?You can survive under a tarp on food stamps . Until it gets cold? Hichhike to a warm climate and get eaten alive by mosquitos? What % of Americans want that? 99 % want enough money to eat and pay rent? Is that unreasonable?
The unemployed aren’t just unemployed, they are now displaced. Internal displacement by neo-slaves brought in from the third world for exactly that purpose. Rise up!
Mr. Snyder–I paid into Social Security as well as Medicare (which I may or may not apply for since I am with a Christian Healthshare Ministry), so are you telling me I am a “something for nothing” person after paying into Social Security, which as you know I did NOT have an option to do? And when I was an independent contractor for a few years, I paid DOUBLE into it? So are you calling me a freeloader?
Trump is trying to get some new rules in Social Security to curtail the non-entitlement use. The disability and SSI fraud, the qualification levels are so low, an alcoholic can get a lifetime paycheck, and have it delivered to the tavern next door, they’ll cash it for him and ensure he’s got enough money for a daily booze-up.
@Smokey
We no longer have SS checks, only direct deposits in a financial institution. Your tavern story is definitely GWTW.
Have you ever known anyone who has applied for SS disability? It is a long process for most people, measured in years.
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“Have you ever known anyone who has applied for SS disability? It is a long process for most people, measured in years.”
Its very trendy to disparage the working person and ignore the CEO. My wife broke her spine at work. The OSHA recordable was never recorded. The X rays showing the damage were never forwarded to her Physician. She was returned to work, it gradually got worse. She was threatened with discharge and this was in a UAW facility. She left, lost her pay for a while and then the facts start to be be uncovered. She is a virtual cripple and was awarded Workmens Comp for life. Chrysler went bankrupt, they were self insured, Delaware a very business friendly state does not back up that workmen comp. So no more medical bills paid by them nor any more payments received. SS turned her down 2x before receiving it at reduced pay because Chrysler took her off the rolls for long periods of time.
This was our experience with “the system”.
No, you can claim you have no banking account and still get paper checks. Hoops to go through.
Purge useless eaters!
Hatchetman said: “I had the maximum yearly amount of social security confiscated from my pay checks for over 30 years. It’s my money that I earned, not an “Entitlement” as it is now called, and I want it back”
Amen Brother hatchetman! When not sticking his slick willie stick where it didn’t belong, or wasn’t wanted, Billy Boy Clinton withdrew social security funds for some treasury infusion blow jobs, thereby shrinking the federal deficit for budget surplus bragging rights! But be of good cheer my fellow worker drone! Accepting unfair treatment in deference the elite agenda constitutes the highest form of surveillance state patriotism, and a genuine commitment to ones personal safety! In unauthorized behalf of the fascist elite, and in the spirit of Memorial Day self sacrifice, THANKS FOR BEING SERVICED. They couldn’t do YOU without YOU!
Hey Juanster, It seems like hours that I’ve been waiting for your comments to appear.
The Social Security and Medicare programs are MANDATORY. For crying out loud, get it right those are not dependency programs. We were forced to pay into them and have every right to expect reimbursement in the form of services. It is stupid to even include these programs in this article.
Technological advancements are rapidly occurring that are making labor obsolete. What happens when machines perform tasks that reduce labor by 90%? Traditional capitalism simply no longer applies as the excess labor competing for fewer and fewer positions reduce the value of the remaining significantly reduced positions and hence purchasing power. Free Trade industrial evisceration is just a precursor. The “Let them eat cake” doesn’t bode well for society as a whole.
I don’t have the answers but I do know that we’re in for some major changes that have a very high probability of being very destabilizing. If an alternative is not found socialism is inevitable. This is not an advocation but just a reality.
Kevin, maybe that’s why the elites want to reduce the population by, umm, what’s the percentage HCKS always says?..
If there are no jobs left except for the robots and AI maintenance crews, we obviously need a major reduction in population.
Still think an EMP is the best solution. Take everything back to the late 1800’s and START OVER.
You’re on your own!
Kissinger referred to people in such a position as, “useless eaters”. The left clamors for cradle to grave handouts; do they believe that some benevolent leadership will carry the unproductive indefinitely? Its very illogical when the immorality and disrespect for the individual is inherent in their philosophy. The best solution is not to kill people nor facilitate events that will contribute towards it. Longing for a major “reset” is madness. Poverty, disease, starvation, war to achieve a supposed political agenda is the realm of Fascists & Communists.
Ass Hat has a point if your a non working parasite you shouldn’t get to vote. Also if you are getting a mental disability payment you shouldn’t get to vote, hold public office or own a gum. If you have mental problems severe enough that you cant work. Then that means you are not capable of making rational decisions. So there fore crazy check drawing nut jobs shouldn’t de allowed to vote or fully participate. And I am drawing from the Social Security Ponzi scheme. And Will soon recoup every penny I paid into it. However my SS money is infused right back into the local economy. Money spent on foreign aid is a complete total dead loss.