Quote:
Originally Posted by huge-pigeons
Social security was never meant to provide you all the money you needed to live on when you stopped working. You had the responsibility when you were younger to save for retirement and if you didn’t you only have yourself to blame.
People are lazy today and they want big government to provide them with what they need to survive. Our young people are not very bright these days and you can blame our teaching system.
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You ARE right about Social Security never being intended to be the sole support of seniors. FDR even said it himself - that Social Security was supposed to be one of three legs of a stool to support retirees - the other two legs being a person's own savings and a company pension.
Well, company pensions are as rare as hen's teeth today.
Private savings are being walloped by the avarice of corporate America. One example is what the ratio of wages to average housing expenses are (rent or mortgage) or how many years of salary the AVERAGE price of a house is. Hint: It's ugly. I'm retiring in a few years and if I wasn't already in my house, I couldn't afford to buy it. In 1978 my mother bought a 3BR house in the 'burbs for $49,900 on a $30,000 annual salary. That house goes for SIX times that price now and incomes haven't increased by nearly that much.
The same has held true for post secondary education expenses. I took courses for $300/semester "back in the day". Just try finding that, adjusted for inflation, today.
This keeps younger people from saving money.
Younger people don't want the government giving them free stuff. They want, among other things, corporations to pay their fair share so that the people aren't bailing them out. We've done 40 years of supply side trickle-down economics and it's always the same story. People think that by giving the dragon more money, he'll share his hoard with the people - and it NEVER happens.
And it's often (not always) the corporations.
Find a privately owned business - like, say, Bucc-ees, and you're much more likely to find fair wages - because you're more likely to find senior management and executive who are happy with making a "fair profit". Introduce a corporate structure and suddenly, BY LAW, you are supposed to put shareholder returns FIRST. That makes a big difference.