Social Security Reform
I'm for it.
I was for it when President Clinton called for it in 1999.
I was for it when President Bush called for reform last year.
I was for it when he called for reform during the SOTU.
Hell, I was for it at age sixteen when I sat down with my father so he could explain the deductions listed on my first paystub. Then, as now, I ask why the hell the federal government wants to plan my retirment at such shitty interest rates? 15 percent of my income compounded for the 40 or so years of my working lifetime should return a nest egg of at least $4 million dollars according to a fifty year average of stock market performance. Social Security promises no such thing. It's a garunteed formula for elderly poverty.
I know it's more complicated than that, I know about disability, medicare, all that. But the underlying princple is simple. Social Security is a bad investment. But it's mandatory. So I'm forced to invest an additional 15 percent the "right" way so that I can retire with dignity.
And 50 years of posturing over the "third rail of politics" has left me a little bitter at my young age.
I was for it when President Clinton called for it in 1999.
I was for it when President Bush called for reform last year.
I was for it when he called for reform during the SOTU.
Hell, I was for it at age sixteen when I sat down with my father so he could explain the deductions listed on my first paystub. Then, as now, I ask why the hell the federal government wants to plan my retirment at such shitty interest rates? 15 percent of my income compounded for the 40 or so years of my working lifetime should return a nest egg of at least $4 million dollars according to a fifty year average of stock market performance. Social Security promises no such thing. It's a garunteed formula for elderly poverty.
I know it's more complicated than that, I know about disability, medicare, all that. But the underlying princple is simple. Social Security is a bad investment. But it's mandatory. So I'm forced to invest an additional 15 percent the "right" way so that I can retire with dignity.
And 50 years of posturing over the "third rail of politics" has left me a little bitter at my young age.