Its possible you may have misunderstood what I said. I'll try again. The US took in about 4.9 trillion in 2022, it won't be long and Medicare and SS will use up all that money. Without a substantial increase in revenue we will have yearly deficits surpassing 5 trillion.

That's end game. Check mate.

I'm not expecting to get the full amount of SS they say I will, frankly I'm not expecting much of anything. I'm ok with that, the kids need opportunity.

I understand. The Fed Gov overspends every year. Always has. They have to take care of the illegals and foreign countries and those who have never worked and are able to.

Don't leave out old people who made promises to themselves without proper funding

So people who aren't wealthy should just lay down and die?
It seems easy for a rich man to look down on those with less and scorn them.

When my Dad was a young man a man would work for $1 a day. At the end of his life Assisted Living was 5500/month. If a man saved 100% of his life earnings it wouldn't be enough to keep up with inflation.

Do you think old people should just be put to death if they aren't wealthy?

I don't have an answer.

That doesn't detract from the math doesn't work whether it's social security, Medicare, welfare of all forms, foreign aid, trillion dollars on defense and the list goes on.

One more good recession is going to make things very interesting.

I agree with you Steven. Hunker down.

When the first person got the first SS check, where did that money come from? How much had they paid in?

Nope. You are paying for your parents.

Your kids and mine will pay yours and my SS.

SS is the only legal ponzi scheme.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've read today! Idk where you drove "in the lower 48", but I guarantee you, our roads here are sufficient!

How bout today?

It's a dismal state of affairs I'll admit.

The gubmint oughta hire more gubmint ppl to fix it.
South Illinoise has good roads and gas prices reflect it.
The interstate namely.

You're more conservative than I am. I believe some people are disabled for legitimate mental reasons. I know a guy who has bipolar disorder and gets agitated and paranoid for little or no reason. He can do house and yard work, and could do outdoor activities if he was interested. I doubt he could set up and maintain a trapline, but he could hunt and fish if he wants to.

Yet he could not hold a job.

Jim

“The most recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) suggests 43 percent of the more than 4 million miles of America's public roadways is in poor or mediocre condition. Of the more than 617,000 road bridges located across America—42 percent of which are now at least 50 years old—about 46,000 are in questionable order, suffering significant structural problems.”

Source: motortrend 2021

Nobody is too disabled to work.
Anyone can get a job as a hat rack.

Or a Walmart greeter.

That’s the deal I see around here. I hear “ I have good days and bad days, just not enough good days in a row to hold down a job”. They have two weeks in a row of good days deer hunting or sitting in a boat when the walleye are running. Or “ I have a bad back. It’s so bad they won’t even operate on it”. In reality, the doctors see nothing wrong with it and won’t operate but because “they simply say” they have a bad back they don’t work. Option one here is first opportunity, get on the draw we call it. Welfare and disability fraud is a terrible problem in this area. All the disability parking spots at Walmart and the post office are always full, if happen to be not there’s oil slicks from such frequent parking. Lately, I’m seeing people with obvious mental disabilities working public jobs. The shutdown lowered other workers acceptable level of productivity and in fact, many now just won’t work. It all boils down to individual and personal responsibility. If someone is truly disabled open and honest conversation won’t bother them. In fact they agree that frauds hurt everything. Sort of like people that immigrated here legally and the current problem. If they are faking it they’re quick to get mad…….here. It used to eat me up all the time. Now, I worked forty years, retired, and am satisfied with where I am and sort of feel sorry for a lot of people around here. If they were humble just weren’t so dad gone in your face about their entitlement lifestyle.


They raise their kids that way too. My son had a career day class in the eighth grade and the teacher was trying to open up their minds to the possibilities they could pursue. One kid just flatly told the teacher “ Why would I want to work? My daddy don’t work and he draws more than you make”. What do you do with that?
I have young distant kinfolk in their twenties and thirties that somehow are living without working. I don’t know what’s going on there but it’s shameful.

You're right. Saving is a loser. One has to invest instead. There is a difference.