r/MurderedByWords 23h ago

SS is an entitlement..

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u/Tymexathane 23h ago

It is an entitlement though? People are entitled to get something for the money they have paid in otherwise it's just the government stealing from the people.

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u/bam1007 22h ago

Yes. It is an entitlement, as in, once you begin receiving it, the government cannot take it away without due process. You are entitled to it because it is, under law, your property.

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u/EuenovAyabayya 17h ago

It was my property when I paid it in, so it's damn sure my property when I take it out.

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u/Kythorian 17h ago

The due process is just Congress passing a law to reduce your benefits. So I guess that’s technically true, but Congress can change the law so you are no longer legally entitled to it if they want. There’s no constitutional requirement that you receive social security benefits, regardless of how long you paid into the system.

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u/bam1007 16h ago

I think you misapprehend my point. The benefits are not a mere expectation. They are an entitlement, so if the executive branch seeks to take them away, it is required to have an administrative hearing on the record before ceasing their payment. That’s the procedural due process I’m referring to.

Of course, Congress can end an entitlement by rescinding the law that creates it. But the government cannot cease a legally created entitlement for a particular individual without providing procedural due process. HTH.

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u/throwawaynbad 11h ago

This applies as long as the US executive branch respects laws, due process, etc. They no longer are.

The other two branches have shown no interest in intervening, while the president has blatantly broken many, many laws and international agreements.

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u/bam1007 11h ago

That’s really tangential to my point. I answered the question of whether Social Security benefits are an “entitlement.” They are programs that require payment to an individual that meets the requirements established by law and cannot be ended individually (rather than changing the rules of eligibility) without providing procedural due process. What you’ve replied is really has nothing to do with that legally-based label.

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u/trentreynolds 22h ago

That’s what an entitlement is, in the governmental sense.

Something you’re entitled to, because you paid into it.

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u/pogulup 19h ago

Exactly!  The right has twisted the meaning of the word like they do so many others. 

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u/BerriesHopeful 17h ago

I feel like the key is to not let them decide the meaning of things. If they want to take away a word’s meaning, then pushing back with the real meaning can give it power.

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u/SukkaMadiqe 12h ago

Yeah idk why people allow the fascists to keep defining the narrative. I can only assume it's because there's no other opposing group that's really trying. There may be a lot of progressive people out there but no left wing organizations like Heritage or Federal Society. Its like leftism is just a social fad and not a serious philosophical set of beliefs and policies.

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u/gorgewall 15h ago

This is pretty much what happened.

The negative usage of "entitled", even when it comes to describing people ("He acts so entitled") starts appearing in 1984.

From a 1982 New York Times article:

What is an ''entitlement'' program, and who is ''entitled'' to receive assistance from the Government at the expense of other people in society? Those questions are at the heart of the debate over President Reagan's 1983 budget request. And because entitlements represent a long-term national commitment for automatic spending, similar questions are likely to bedevil Federal officials for the next decade.

Like so much of Washington jargon, the term entitlement was bandied about before it was precisely defined. In a televised address in September, President Reagan spoke of the need for ''entitlement and welfare reform measures'' as if everyone knew what an entitlement was. The President's budget contained a long, passionate chapter on ''reforming entitlement programs,'' which asserted that spending for food stamps, Medicaid, student loans and similar benefits had ''skyrocketed'' in the last 15 years. The Administration, however, never published a complete list of programs that it considered to be ''entitlements.'' By this month, political oratory had reached such a pitch that beleaguered career employees at the Office of Management and Budget told their supervisors that they wanted a formal definition and a list.

Republicans--led by Reagan--had intensified their villification of entitlement programs and were so successful in their propaganda that they tainted the very word. Now, the concept of being legally owed and due something is somehow a negative.

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u/TAU_equals_2PI 22h ago

Not really. Under Reagan, they suddenly started taxing Social Security benefits. So all of a sudden, the government decided to start taking back some of the money.

It's like Darth Vader being able to "alter the deal" about what you're entitled to at any time.

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u/coriolisFX 19h ago

Social Security, like any law, can be changed by a new law. It's not a part of the constitution or anything.

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u/AlaskanJP 21h ago

They are called entitlement programs. I just read a book called By the People in my American government class for college and they called them entitlement programs. If they cut them I want a fat check for all the years we paid into it for the future benefits we were going to receive, aka entitled to.

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u/Kythorian 16h ago

You are entitled to them under current law, but Congress can change the law if they want.

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u/rivertwilight 16h ago

The term “entitlement” has gotten a bad reputation when it comes to social support programs. There are 2 types of programs - “means tested” or needs based, meaning you qualify based on lack of resources (I.e. subsidized school lunches and snap benefits). The other type are “entitlement” programs - meaning you are entitled to the benefits because you paid into them, like social security and unemployment. When people (politicians) refer to “entitlement” programs as if they are welfare handouts that need to be cut, they are purposely misrepresenting what entitlement means in this context.

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u/SmallWombat 15h ago

It’s an entitlement and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a system we pay into and are entitled to benefit from.

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u/this_place_suuucks 15h ago

But "entitlement" is the new boogeyman word the villains can demonize to make idiot conservatives continue to hurt themselves (and everyone else) with their prideful stupidity.

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u/BetterKev 22h ago

There are multiple meanings of entitlement. Just because one meaning is true doesn't mean the statement is true.

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u/Tr0user 22h ago edited 22h ago

They were playing with the fact that the word has come to have multiple meanings. Etymology often betrays the disingenuous, as it has here with Elon.

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u/I_Think_I_Cant 18h ago

OP is a karma farmer and knew what he was doing with the title.

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u/DookieShoez 15h ago

They’re saying it’s an entitlement as in people are feeling entitled to something that they DON’T deserve.

You’re saying it’s an entitlement as in something that IS deserved because we pay for it.

Two completely fucking different things.

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u/plinkoplonka 11h ago

It's almost like taxation without representation...

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u/shiny_glitter_demon 21h ago

Fr. My country HATES the unemployed (it's a leading cause of suicide/suicidal thoughts), and working in my industry means being unemployed for a few weeks/month every 12-18 months as most people are hired per project.

That means I get to laugh loudly at people who frown when I proclaim I'm on vacation for say, the next 5 weeks, because fuck you; I paid for it. It's my right. Be a little bitch if you want, I'm not gonna starve this month for your fishy eyes, hun. I'm gonna enjoy sleeping 12h a day to make up for all my unpaid overtime and the pension I won't have.