Quote:
Originally Posted by August
Be that as it may it is still a debt that the Federal Government owes the American people. If they don't pay it back then it removes any legitimacy they may have.
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Like that's ever gonna happen.
Wasn't laughing at you or your comment, just at the idea. I don't think they have any legitimacy at all, and the only reason it works is because people believe it.
Supposedly The Government owes the debt to itself, and then it owes it to the people. Unfortunately Congress will never pay SS back, and rather than even trying to pay the people, the Fed tells us it's what
we owe, not them, and we believe them. Part of the problem is that back in 1935 benifits had to passed out right away, and to people who had never paid in, because there was no Social Security while they were working. The good news was that there were a lot more paying in than recieving benifits. Then in the '50s the Greatest Generation came home and started making babies, and lots of them. In the 1970 we believed in Zero Population Growth. That didn't really happen, but thanks to medicine, diet and better living there are more people on the recieving end than the paying, and funds are dwindling, not growing. Couple that with SS buying Treasury Bonds to shore up the other spending, and it's a wonderful house of cards just waiting for a big blow.
During the Big Bailout I asked where the money was coming from. Congress is so far in debt there is pretty much no hope of recovery, and SS is right there with them. Taxing the Rich at 99% wouldn't go five yards toward bailing out the Government, but it would leave them as broke as the rest of us and make a lot of people feel good about themselves. The problem isn't The Rich, it's The Congress, and the only way out of this is to take away their exorbitant salaries and benifits, and make it a public service, not a great career move. That wouldn't solve the debt either, but it might make them think of themselves as servants, not overlords, and it might make them actually do something to help the country rather than the handful of people who make them ever richer.