For the LIFE of my, WHY THE HELL is this misbegotten Libertarian propagandist radical right winger talking point spring back to life like a friggin' ZOMBIE?
Oh, that's right! It's a DAMNED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEAR!
STOP SPREADING THESE LIES! It's a friggin' FARCE!
I could've sworn we settled this stuff a few years ago!
But, hey, un-welcome to the United States of Amnesia! Right?
The land of the un-free, home of the non-brave cowards, the revisionists, and the systematically Pavlovian programmed mindless idiots.
For the LAST TIME!Social Security IS NOT BANKRUPT! And, AMERICA IS NOT BROKE!
STOP LYING!
Don't you remember all that blow-back in 2012, 2013, and 2014 when all of a sudden people called it out, ALL OVER THE MEDIA?
Because I DO!
I've sat in on conference calls, meetings, and seminars on this very topic, and my brain has no reset button on it...
I'm no mindless robot programmed to just accept anything I hear, or am told... No one, and NOTHING, is off limits!
Remember THIS article tweeted all over Twitter, and on social media? Because I Do.
You, know THIS ONE from Reuters calling out the BULL SHIT of Paul Ryan called "America Is Not Broke"
It also makes mention of FDR's "The New Deal", "The Great Society", and "the social contract", so if you have a High School diploma, or a College degree and you DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS, then SHAME ON YOU!
You SHOULD actually have learned and STILL understand ALL OF THAT. But, hey, Google is your friend if you're rusty.
Here's a direct quote from the article (if you haven't klicked n read it yet):
'This may be surprising, given how much we hear about a looming “debt crisis.” But annual budget deficits have fallen by almost two-thirds over the past five years. The total national debt is actually projected to shrink in each of the next three years as a share of the economy.
Exaggerating our debt does not advance smart fiscal policies. It does, however, undermine the social programs created by the New Deal and the Great Society by making their successes appear hopelessly unaffordable and doomed to failure. If our debt is out of control, then Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would seem like unrealistic pipedreams.
Feeding the hungry, rebuilding our infrastructure and educating our children would sound like nice ideas, but too much for the government to handle.
That’s where the Republican budget comes in. For the past few years, House Republicans have passed a budget that radically reduces support for healthcare, economic opportunity and a safety net for hard times. By claiming to address an urgent “debt crisis,” it dismantles the social contract that Americans have made with their government for decades.'
Now, moving right along to the propagandist LIES of the MYTHICAL idea that "Social Security is Bankrupt".
Utter rubbish trash!
It's simple basic math. Let me break it down for you:
You put money in, and then you get money back out... it also gains interest...
All year long, revenue gets generated, and that money gets collected. IT DOES NOT STOP.
I think a lot of the misinformation is due to George W. Bush abusing his Executive Orders as President. he was greedily after trying to raid Social Security which was so bloated with money at the end of Bill Clinton's administration.
Here's an article (CNN back when they were actually doing journalism & rating driven less punditry) that showed that in 2005 the media was a lot more keen on understanding the matters. In this article it explains how GW Bush kept trying to raid Social Security.
The term "privatizing Social Security" was a code talk meaning a way for banks and bankers to charge fees on THE PEOPLE'S MONEY, for nothing... in other words, a way to legally rob money and dress it up by calling it a "service". It's also a VERY similar scheme like how they got people to believe that Pensions are "a bad idea' and pushed people into "401K" so they could rob YOUR RETIREMENT MONEY blind, or even gamble with it (derivative, naked swap bets, insurance scams, high frequency trading, and fraud investments AKA "toxic assets") .
I've personally lost count of how many folks I knew lost their retirement either by the end of the 90s, or during GWB's rein.
"Service charges" are just a way of forcing YOU to pay money for NOTHING, and calling it a "fee" or a "service". many of these so-called fees, when dealing with banks or brokers, you can actually refuse to pay in person. You threaten to leave and take your business elsewhere if they don't remove the charge. they will fraudulently try to scare you and call it "insurance" even tho' it's already by law legally insured by the FDIC. You can also threaten to "make a run on the bank" which is scary talk to bankers, because whenever someone closes an account, especially in big corporate banks, it shows their name, and corporate entities often are profit or numbers driven, using what seems like sophisticated graphs, which they use to show to their board of investors, which also is used to make their revenue seem larger to the stock market.
If you STILL HAVE NOT WATCHED the "Frontline" investigative documentary report "The Retirement Gamble" then WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU????
WATCH IT!
It's actually VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND!
It REALLY puts things into PERSPECTIVE. I suggest you take notes.
And you will SEE and understand JUST HOW BADLY you are BEING LEGALLY ROBBED from your RETIREMENT, and what to do about it!
SO, with THAT out of the way, lets move along, onto the toppic of HOW the propagandist idea of "Social Security is Bankrupt" is BULL SHIT FRAUD!
If you are looking for a brief summation of this in an article form this one here was a popular one from 2012, in particular it was also one I sat through a number of financial & political meetings/calls/conferences of people discussing this.
It's called:
"5 Huge Myths About Social Security"
First of all, let's bring up the topic of FRAUD.
Fraud is basically presenting information as fact or truth, when it actually is false.
There are variations of fraud. In laymen terms there's what's referred to as "half truths".
But, on the legal end of things there's a MAJOR type of fraud which is known as "selective disclosure".
It means to present information about something to make it seem either favorable or unfavorable, but omitting all the information that is against what you are presenting as truth, also to make yourself seem better. Ergo, selecting disclosing SOME information, and withholding other information. A way of telling SOME truth, so as to appear to be truthful, in order to deceptively manipulate circumstancing in your favor, often with investments, money, policy, products, false advertising, etc. It's basically FRAUD.
It's also illegal. And, there's many laws on the books about many of these sorts of frauds.
See also: Malfeasance.
So, in discussing the phony made-up talking points about Social Security being "bankrupt" let's talk about the parts they just LEFT OUT, omitted, and presented as fact.
The idea that Social Security running out of money only would be true if we just suddenly stopped collecting revenue for it.
These figures DELIBERATELY left THAT OUT.
Every year, Social Security generates incoming revenue FROM YOU.
As long as it does this, it will remain SOLVENT.
However, those whom keep on ringing this Pavlovian bell to their brainwashed base purposely keep that out because they WANT TO DISMANTLE Social Security. They do not want liberty, fairness, justice, or a Republic.
It's basic math.
Now, the program is still somewhat modest, and there's plenty of room for adjusting it.
It also makes money on internist.
Privatizing it would also make it less able to to help the people it is meant to. It's puts MIDDLE MEN into the mix.
Here are several instances of the actual facts that are easily digestible even for a laymen:
Ronald Reagan
Caught in lies about robbing and duping the American people and trying to rob Social Security:
Think tanks funded by The Koch Brothers For Libertarians to use Propaganda to brainwash people into thinking Social Security is bad for them, and other think tank cooked-up phony fraud:
Simple Math & Facts Solutions (circa. 2015):
The remedy to ignorance (the lack of knowledge about something) is education.
Educate yourself. Ask questions, and question everything.
You need to know some other cogent information about WHERE the propagandist think tanks came from that created the farce of the talking points on "a bankrupt social security". It has NOTHING TO DO WITH FACT. It has everything to do with the ideology of Libertarians, especially The Koch Brothers.
This films was incredibly popular when it came out. It's strange that people develop amnesia.
Another aspect to point out is the issue of "tax cuts". Tax cuts for the wealthy under George W Bush actually caused deficits. If you Google search the executive orders that he issues or even 'remarks" or "statements" in those files you can see a long list of his executive orders. It will take you days to read through them all.
Tax cuts take away from everything that benefits you, and everyone. Everyone has to pay taxes. Libertarians like to beat this drum that taxes are unconstitutional... that's because they're self aggrandized tax cheats and literally have a pro-selfishness & pro-greed ideology.
It was a popular idea in the 1980s that corporatists and libertarians actually proudly flaunted the idea of selfishness & greed as a good quality for the sake of the markets. There were even films from the 80s which were meant to portray these selfish, self-centered types as the villains they were shown to be in the films, however these individuals actually idolized the villains of the films.
This ideology was a sophistry/philosophy of greed & selfishness by Ayan Rand which she wrote books about such as "Atlas Shrugged". She also often gave interviews about how she hated Jesus and openly professed her hatred of helping the poor, and disdain for humanitarians.
This book was often popular with teenagers since it glorifies an "ideology of being an ass hole, selfish jerk". She was, however, a hypocrite and altho' she publicly jeered and mocked social programs, she actually frequently benefited from Social Security benefits via her husband.
A person whom was the most gungho and avid fundamentalist of this Ayan Rand Libertarian stint of policies that "the market was never wrong" and "the invisible hand of the market" extreme John Locke versions via Ayan Rand fanaticism was none other than Alan Greenspan.
Alan Greenspan was so smug, and so full of himself and this religious fervor of these Libertarian neoliberalism pro-corporatist pro-privatization ideologies that he was known to NEVER admit to wrong, ever.
However, when the markets crashed under GB Bush due to repealing of Glass-Steagall this fantasy of markets never being wrong, and regulations, and safety nets being unnecessary crashed with it.
When Alan Greenspan admitted he was wrong (because it was his fault) it was MAJOR!
WOW!
And, 2 more final films that would behoove you to watch:
