How to Respond to the Claim, "We Can't Afford Social Security"

[jtown1123]

If it's not enough to convince someone that Social Security has $2.6 trillion in surplus and is separately funded from the budget, remind him or her that there is extreme wealth in in this country...we simply aren't raising enough revenue. An excerpt from a blog:

Something to Remember
By NCPSSM | March 7, 2011

When someone standing in line at the grocery store…or at the bus stop…or even at your own dinner table tells you “we just can’t afford Social Security”, think of this article from Mother Jones which shows just how far our nation has come in keeping the rich richer, and working Americans poorer. Here is just one of their 11 charts showing that

A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household.

The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.

The REST: http://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/?p=1628

A few weeks ago, Robert Reich pointed out that the Greenspan Commission in'83 set the FICA tax cap to cover 90% of wages. They did not account for the extreme inequality of wealth, so now, the FICA tax cap only covers 84% of wages: http://www.truth-out.org/robert-reich-budget-baloney-167874

[Bandit]

1. We must use all money for endless WAR...

Nothing else matters.....NOTHING.....

[jtown1123]

2. Polls show most people (R or teabag) support Social Security

I think if we can find a way to present the choice between these programs and taxing the rich more, we could find more solidarity on this issue.

[damntexdem]

3. What, we can't afford to stand behind our bonds? To pay back what we've borrowed?

It's not that Social Security is costing "us" -- it has a surplus that has bailed us out. What is at issue is standing behind the bonds in which that surplus has been invested.

And in a wider sense, we can't afford to not only destroy the lives of many of our elderly but also to destroy our own futures.

[ejpoeta]

4. first of all, it doesn't matter what you say. telling them there is a surplus is useless.

glenn beck says there isn't, so there isn't. end of story. It's like putting money into your savings account faithfully for 30 years and then being told that you can't have it. it's a fucking rip off. my brother, i can assure you, though i refuse to talk to him about anything since he believes only what glenn beck says and will not hear anything in the realm of actual facts, but i assure you he is talking about how social security is a ponzi scheme. it blows my mind!! fucking blows my mind. and no amount of talking to him will deter him from believing what that asshole glen beck says. nothing! he is a lost cause i am afraid.

[jtown1123]

5. Yeah, some people are beyond hope. Others can be convinced.

Polls show 70 plus percent of pple don't want SS cuts. Those are freakishly strong numbers.

[ejpoeta]

6. it's sad to see people like my brother though. it makes a person think there is no hope.

but 70% is good! 70% hopefully will mean something. even though my dad had a pension, that social security on top of it gave him a comfortable retirement for him. though he didn't like being retired too much frankly. he got bored. He died with a couple hundred in the bank and a car, but he was allowed to have that. he deserved it. went to florida with his girlfriend once a year.... had it better than a lot of others. To want to take that from someone who spent their whole life working their butt off is beyond me. You work your whole life for what... just to work until you die?

[Taitertots]

7. We can afford Social Security as long as we can afford War

It is insane double think that some people think we both can't afford Social Security, but we can afford trillions for wars.

[Warpy]

8. "Can you afford being turned out of your job when you get old

and being left to your own savings?"

"Can you afford to have your parents and inlaws move in with you, supporting them until they die?"

People need to have abstract concepts come home and be applied to their daily lives. Having the inlaws and the parents move in would be a fate worse than death for most of us no matter what our political persuasion is, but that's the alternative to social security, which allows people with modest savings or small pensions to live independently.

What we can't afford are military bases in 170 countries, new overengineered war toys that nobody but some fat cat contractors want ordered every year, and wars around the planet because the rich people scream communism or some tinpot dictator has turned on us.

These idiots are either young folks who think they're going to get rich quick or old folks who don't realize inflation will eat up the purchasing power of both their savings and pensions. They also are people who have never learned to think anything through. We have to do that for them.

Just don't expect them to thank you for it.