Dear Patty Myers
Over the weekend I was sent what purports to be a letter from an angry person about to retire named Patty Myers responding to Senator Alan Simpson on the cost of social security. The letter begins as follows:
Dear Patty Myers,
Let me clear up a basic misunderstanding you have here. Your social security payments were not paid into any account. Social security payments have always gone into general government revenues. They have never earned interest. The system has always depended on there being more people paying into it than were drawing money out of it. Every penny you ever paid in Social Security deductions was already spent years ago.
That is not unlike a Ponzi scheme in that Ponzi schemes also depend on more people paying into them than drawing out. It may interest you to know, Ms. Myers that people have been raising doubts about the viability of such a scheme since it was first proposed. They were generally attacked as being “mean-spirited” and “uncaring” for doing so.
There was something called a "social security lock box" but it was actually just an accounting trick and it was dreamed up decades after the fact. You may have read that the USA is in debt to the tune of $14 trillion. Well that number doesn’t include the money the government has committed to pay out for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. If you include those amounts, the national debt would be $75 trillion!
You have clearly never bothered to educate yourself about even the smallest details of how the system actually works and now you are getting outraged at the people who are trying to fix it.
The nature of social security has also changed over the years. When you began paying into the system 48 years ago, it was understood to be social security. That is, it was understood to be a system that would help protect the weakest and most vulnerable from destitution when they were no longer able to work. The assumption had been that most people would provide for their own retirement by saving or that other family members would help take care of them after retirement.
That all changed with the post-war generations including you (you are a baby boomer born in 1947). They and you repeatedly voted for governments that expanded Medicare, Social Security and other assistance programs until they became not security for people who really needed them but rather entitlements that people think they are owed as you clearly believe you are given your angry response here.
Incidentally, your generation, the baby boomers, have collectively proven to be the worst savers in history and when you factor in the government programs you have demanded but not been willing to pay for, you have lived beyond your means your for your entire lives.
In doing so, you and the governments you elected loaded more and more debt onto future generations. They added to the cost of employment with mandatory employer contributions thereby making the structural unemployment levels higher. They developed a system that eroded public virtue because people began to think that the government would take care of them when they didn’t have a job and when they retired and so they were much less likely to save for these things. I should point out that there were also politicians who pointed this out in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In repayment for doing their job and arguing for fiscal prudence, these poor politicians were subjected to vicious personal attacks by other politicians and the press. They were accused of not caring.
And no Patty, it’s not your money. When you give money to the government it becomes government money to use as elected officials see fit. The entire social security system could be cancelled tomorrow by a simple act of Congress (as it could be cancelled here in Canada by a simple act of Parliament). Your social security is entirely dependent on the charity of others.
In that regard, you might consider the plight of all those kids in their twenties entering the toughest labour market since the 1930s. Because they will very shortly be running things and one of the tough decisions they are going to have to make is whether to continue to sustain a system that they probably will never see any benefit from.
In conclusion Patty honey, two words ...
Over the weekend I was sent what purports to be a letter from an angry person about to retire named Patty Myers responding to Senator Alan Simpson on the cost of social security. The letter begins as follows:
Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight..
1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).
3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.And it goes on and on and on. Number three is where she goes awry. I suspect that Patty Myers doesn't actually exist but here is how I would answer her.
Dear Patty Myers,
Let me clear up a basic misunderstanding you have here. Your social security payments were not paid into any account. Social security payments have always gone into general government revenues. They have never earned interest. The system has always depended on there being more people paying into it than were drawing money out of it. Every penny you ever paid in Social Security deductions was already spent years ago.
That is not unlike a Ponzi scheme in that Ponzi schemes also depend on more people paying into them than drawing out. It may interest you to know, Ms. Myers that people have been raising doubts about the viability of such a scheme since it was first proposed. They were generally attacked as being “mean-spirited” and “uncaring” for doing so.
There was something called a "social security lock box" but it was actually just an accounting trick and it was dreamed up decades after the fact. You may have read that the USA is in debt to the tune of $14 trillion. Well that number doesn’t include the money the government has committed to pay out for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. If you include those amounts, the national debt would be $75 trillion!
You have clearly never bothered to educate yourself about even the smallest details of how the system actually works and now you are getting outraged at the people who are trying to fix it.
The nature of social security has also changed over the years. When you began paying into the system 48 years ago, it was understood to be social security. That is, it was understood to be a system that would help protect the weakest and most vulnerable from destitution when they were no longer able to work. The assumption had been that most people would provide for their own retirement by saving or that other family members would help take care of them after retirement.
That all changed with the post-war generations including you (you are a baby boomer born in 1947). They and you repeatedly voted for governments that expanded Medicare, Social Security and other assistance programs until they became not security for people who really needed them but rather entitlements that people think they are owed as you clearly believe you are given your angry response here.
Incidentally, your generation, the baby boomers, have collectively proven to be the worst savers in history and when you factor in the government programs you have demanded but not been willing to pay for, you have lived beyond your means your for your entire lives.
In doing so, you and the governments you elected loaded more and more debt onto future generations. They added to the cost of employment with mandatory employer contributions thereby making the structural unemployment levels higher. They developed a system that eroded public virtue because people began to think that the government would take care of them when they didn’t have a job and when they retired and so they were much less likely to save for these things. I should point out that there were also politicians who pointed this out in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In repayment for doing their job and arguing for fiscal prudence, these poor politicians were subjected to vicious personal attacks by other politicians and the press. They were accused of not caring.
And no Patty, it’s not your money. When you give money to the government it becomes government money to use as elected officials see fit. The entire social security system could be cancelled tomorrow by a simple act of Congress (as it could be cancelled here in Canada by a simple act of Parliament). Your social security is entirely dependent on the charity of others.
In that regard, you might consider the plight of all those kids in their twenties entering the toughest labour market since the 1930s. Because they will very shortly be running things and one of the tough decisions they are going to have to make is whether to continue to sustain a system that they probably will never see any benefit from.
In conclusion Patty honey, two words ...
"you might consider the plight of all those kids in their twenties entering the toughest labour market since the 1930s"
ReplyDeleteWait a minute. Those who ran up massive debt (and continue to do so) haven't minded putting those kids in this mess. Patty and the rest of us have been doing all we can for those kids. It's the government that has been mismanaging money by paying off its special interest groups, favored corporations and unions.
"And no Patty, it’s not your money. When you give money to the government it becomes government money to use as elected officials see fit."
Hey Jules, the money is taken from us. We don't "give" money to the government; it's collected through taxation. Try not "giving" them money and see where it lands you.
Hello Nelbert and thanks for stopping by and commenting.
ReplyDeleteA couple of issues to consider.
I share your anger at payoffs to special interest groups, corporations and unions but that spending is tiny compared to entitlement programs such as medicare and medicaid. Entitlements are the primary reason the government is in debt and anyone, such as Patty here, who has been standing around screaming "don't much my entitlements" at politicians is a big part of the problem.
Second point, I quite agree with you that we don't give to the government but that it takes. The problem is that Patty Myers doesn't get that. Look at her own words here:
"My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades ..."
Well, no they weren't. Every penny she ever paid went straight out the door right away (most of it in entitlement spending her generation voted for).
The government has been going through cash like cattle let loose in a field of ripe corn for decades now and it was the voters' responsibility to notice this was happening and do something about it. They didn't and now everybody has to pay.