Just think, your retirement plan, whether pension or 401k, is invested in nothing more than a ponzi scheme! HOLY COW!

The current crisis demonstrates in no uncertain terms why Social Security is so important. The markets are full of greedy criminals who only care about making money for themselves and their rich buddies. They’ll take us on short rides with them so we can make a little money for awhile (while they are making a mint using our money) and then WHAM, they steal our money and run, laughing all the way to the South Pacific islands and their Swiss Bank accounts.

Social Security only needs to have the payroll tax increased to say 8% (it’s currently at 6.7%) in order to be rolling in dough. That is a cheap price for an almost guaranteed income in retirement. DO NOT think of Social Security as a retirement plan – it isn’t, think of it as insurance – and all during your working years, scrimp, live frugally, and save every dime you can just as your grandparents did and when you turn 65 or so you’ll do OK most likely. IF the market takes away your private investments just before retirement as it has done for millions of people this past year, then at least you’ll have Social Security and you can perhaps live in a camper trailer somewhere. That’s better than living in a cardboard box or under a bridge which is all that the market can guarantee.

I personally would like to see Social Security retained, but only as a disability program. Persons unable to work due to illness or advanced age should certainly be cared for. However, healthy and well-heeled sixtysomethings who want to quit their desk jobs to have fun should save and use their own money for that privilege. They should not be drawing income from the paychecks of younger people who may not even live to see 65 because they can’t afford health insurance and other necessities. That being said, we need to retain some benefits for all who paid into the system, but we do need to start rolling this monster back.

Unfortunately, this blogger is probably right – the AARP is the most powerful lobbying organization in America, and if you try to take one Social Security check away from one millionaire retiree, then they are going to accuse of you trying to throw all America’s grandparents out into the street in one fell swoop. Don’t let them get away with this – your necessities are as important as anyone else’s and YOU earned those dollars coming out of your checks, not the AARP.

There is talk about eliminating the first 20K of earnings from SS taxes. I hope this passes, and I hope that they apply the same witholding practice used for incomes over the current cap (once you hit the income cap, the taxes disappear from your subsequent paychecks). I think part of the problem is that younger people don’t really think about how much this is costing them – but once they have the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t experience, it should hopefully register on a gut level and get them fighting back against these lobbying groups.