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Janet's avatar

As you are as well. We saved knowing social security is not enough. Most of those I know did the same. We paid cash for stuff. Our house in 10 years. Paid off credit cards every month. Lived well within our means and didn’t feel had to go into debt to have stuff—something I don’t see as much of now in younger generations. Had jobs. Took care of our health. We drove our last car 16 years. We paid all our working lives. That is the system we dealt with. Not my fault it’s a f’ing mess and I’m not bleeding anyone.

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Conservative Contrarian's avatar

I have done the same financially, so how am I ill-informed?

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Heyjude's avatar

Many boomers (and I am one) seem defensive about SS and Medicare. They see a realistic assessment of these Ponzi schemes as somehow denigrating their work and contributions. Yes, we all know you worked and contributed. That doesn’t make the programs viable.

It’s a shame so many were led to believe they were saving for their own retirement, when in truth they were paying for their parents to live independently in Florida instead of with their kids.

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P.S.'s avatar

Yes, but the reason it is going broke, is because Politicians have been stealing the money.

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Heyjude's avatar

It was set up that way. Social Security “invested” the taxes we paid in Treasury bonds. What else could it be invested in - the stock market? The trust fund consists of Treasury bonds, the “safest” investment on the planet.

Of course, that also means that Social Security lent the money to the government to use on whatever it wanted. That’s what happens to all money invested in Treasury bonds. The US government uses it, with a promise to pay back later.

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Sherry's avatar

I'm not defensive about either. I don't even have Medicare by choice. I'm one of those "deadbeat" career federal employees who spent 30 years in public service, whether the looneys want to call it that or not. I didn't write the laws, I just followed them. There seems to be a lot of envy/jealousy of boomers because we got the best of things. We built a lot of the best of things too.

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Heyjude's avatar

We are about to find out that dogs and cats are not really equivalent to children. The dog babies will not be paying into Social Security.

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Heyjude's avatar

I’m a boomer too. My point is that we were all deceived. The program was never set up as a way to save for your own retirement, it was always about paying for past generations.

Now there are not enough young people to support the older generation. A lot of boomers don’t want to accept the reality that while they thought they were saving for their own retirement, they were really paying so their parents didn’t have to move in with them.

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Megan Baker's avatar

Housing and college are infinitely more expensive now than they were 40 and 50 years ago.

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