Thread: Social Security Opinions

I would love to hear everyone's opinion on Social Security. Please back up what you say with a few links. AlFranken.com and The Heritage Institute will not be acceptable links on their own, thank you.

Opinions of what? How it's governed? How it's doled out? Who gets it first? What? That's a rather broad question you asked.

Originally Posted by Dubyas-Twin-Sister

Opinions of what? How it's governed? How it's doled out? Who gets it first? What? That's a rather broad question you asked.

Whatever you want. This topic doesnt get enough go around in general.

two words: End it. We need to get rid of this bullshit ASAP. Now for the people who payed in, they should be payed out than the system eliminated.

Originally Posted by AnotherConservative

two words: End it. We need to get rid of this bullshit ASAP. Now for the people who payed in, they should be payed out than the system eliminated.

I obviously disagree....and I don't agree that Social Security is "bullshit".

I'll say that the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture and the Homeland Security Department should be abolished though, each individual state should deal with these issues, there's no need to have great, big Federal departments for each of these things....and that the NEA and NASA should be privatized.

I think the Social Security system is rather bloated, I think that it could be streamlined and also removed of red tape.

The Social Security system is there to provide the genuinely vulnerable and the genuinely needy, people who simply cannot aquire any other form of income....the elderly, the disabled for example.

If the Social Security system was eliminated, what would you suggest the people who need it as a safety net and a lifeline go and do?

There's far too many people on welfare that shouldn't be on welfare, and those people are of course abusing the system, so there needs to be an effort to get these people out of the culture of dependency....for this sort of person, welfare should be a Hand Up and NOT a Hand Out.

If they're able bodied, then they should be told to get a job, if they need extra skills then they should be put on a training program to get the skills they need.

But Social Security shouldn't either be privatized or eliminated, a society can't just cut loose some of it's most vulnerable and needy citizens and tell them "you're on your own, so pull your socks up and get walking"

There has to be a safety net.

I think we can easily avoid catastrophe if we just kept up on the benefit age. When social security was instituted people lived past their entitlement date by an avarage of 6 years, dying at 71. Hard, backbreaking work was the norm in those days, and people were old at 40.

Now people live into their 90's on a regular basis. 60 isn't that old anymore, and jobs are becoming increasingly less physical, as well as many careers almost entirely on the computer in a desk. People are capable of working into their 70's no problem.

It is not a doomed ponzi scheme, we just need to keep up with human evolution and life expectancy. It wasnt designed to benefit people for 25% of their lives, it was set up for 8%, and served well until life expectancy took off.

Maybe there can a be a grandfather clause so if you are, say 55 you can still retire at 65, so retirement plans dont get screwed up too badly. Jack it up to about 75 and it is solvent until we start living 110 years, same with medicare.

If you privatize it, get ready for a bunch of poor homeless old people at some point. Then what?

Also, we need to quit letting congress and the president draw out of the fund, thats another big reason it is in trouble.

It doesnt need to be abolished, It should be drastically altered.

How Medicare works...

The phone rings and the lady of the house answers, "Hello."
"Mrs. Ward, please."
"Speaking."
"Mrs. Ward, this is Doctor Jones at the Medical Testing Laboratory.
When your doctor sent your husband's biopsy to the lab yesterday, a
biopsy from another Mr. Ward arrived as well, and we are now uncertain
which one is your husband's. Frankly the results are either bad or
terrible."
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Ward asks nervously.
"Well, one of the specimens tested positive for Alzheimer's and the
other one tested positive for AIDS. We can't tell which your
husband's is."
"That's dreadful! Can't you do the test again?" questioned Mrs. Ward.
"Normally we can, but Medicare will only pay for these expensive tests
one time."
"Well, what am I supposed to do now?"
"The people at Medicare recommend that you drop your husband off
somewhere in the middle of town. If he finds his way home, don't
sleep with him."

Thats pretty good. Did you know Bush has threatened to veto the democrats bill to allow medicare to barter for lower drugs?

"Medicare is going to go bankrupt! Sound the alarms!"

"Mr. president we have a plan to save billions and billions a year right here."

"No way. Don't you know how many of my friends would not be able to overcharge on their pharmaceutical companies? They would have to sell one of their yachts, for christ's sake!"

Medicare was just alloted extra millions of dollars this year to help recipients with costs of medical care and prescriptions. I get medicare through disability and I will only be paying $6-$25 for prescriptions with my plan.

Originally Posted by Dubyas-Twin-Sister

Medicare was just alloted extra millions of dollars this year to help recipients with costs of medical care and prescriptions. I get medicare through disability and I will only be paying $6-$25 for prescriptions with my plan.

Thats good. I dont have to pay virtually anything for medicines (at least until I finish school).