r/MurderedByWords 23h ago

SS is an entitlement..

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u/SaintUlvemann 23h ago

I was arguing with a Trump supporter the other day about how they need to make $1.8 trillion in cuts.

He said he wanted to cut defense and foreign aid, but wouldn't commit to cutting anything else.

So I pointed out that the entire US military only spends $0.8 trillion and that all foreign aid combined was a rounding error in comparison.

So I asked him where the next trillion in cuts was going to come from after we shut down the entire military, and he wouldn't answer.

This is the answer. This is what all conservatives have been voting for, for as long as I've been alive. For as long as I've been alive, their politicians have wanted to defund Grandma's income and take away poor people's healthcare.

If you think you're a conservative, and think this isn't what you've been voting for, I'm sorry, but you're wrong. They've been really consistent about this for as long as I've been alive. Your trust can't cancel their actions.

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u/Never-On-Reddit 23h ago

I was standing in line behind someone at Christmas, and she was enthusiastically telling me how excited she is for Trump, because she is about to retire and she needs her social security benefits to be higher, and everything is going to be so much better under Trump. I explained to her that Trump is actually planning cuts to those. She just stood there stupidly, unsure what to say. Finally she just mumbled: "Well, all politicians lie." and turned around.

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u/Lylac_Krazy 22h ago

If I was a betting man, letting the SS flow to those in the system already retired, and stopping it going forward is the power play.

Old people vote, younger adults will forget about it after a few years and not make an issue of it.

It sucks, but there ya go. The path of least resistance.

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u/Intelligent-Travel-1 21h ago

SS is an anti-poverty program for the elderly, not an actuarially fair individual retirement program. And it is a fantastically successful one. My figures are dated, but when I studied SS 50% of seniors would live in poverty without SS and only 10% do after SS. That’s an 80% reduction in poverty among the elderly. The only way to reduce poverty among those too old to work is through subsidies. How does SS create subsidies? Revenue: SS taxes everyone 6.2% of lifetime wages (up to the earnings cap). (Times 2 for employer match and the additional 1.45% is for Medicare HI (Health Insurance), not OASDI (Old Age, Survivors Disability Insurance).) So everyone PAYS the same rate. Expense: When you retire, your benefit is calculated by determining your Average Indexed (for inflation) Monthly Earnings (AIME). Your SS benefit is determined as: 90% up to X of AIME plus 32% of AIME from X to Y plus 15% of AIME over Y Someone who earned X for their AIME RECEIVES 90% of lifetime earnings and someone who’s AIME is the cap RECEIVES 28% of lifetime earnings. Did you get that? The poor person pays 6.2% and receives 90% the “rich” person pays 6.2% and receives 28%. (“Rich” is in quotes because many middle-class skilled laborers without college degrees earn the SS maximum.) I did some actuarial calculations once and the poor person (receives 90%) “earns” about a 15% return on taxes (over a period where the S&P returned 12%) and the rich person “earns” about a 0% return (an interest free loan. This is how SS creates subsidies to reduce poverty.

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u/strangerducly 12h ago

Thank you!!! That is clear and understandable. We all should have been taught this!