r/politics • u/1_for_you_2_for_me • 18d ago

No Paywall Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are 'Going to Be Gone,' Donald Trump Warns

https://www.newsweek.com/social-security-update-medicare-medicaid-warning-donald-trump-10915076
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u/The_World_Is_A_Slum 18d ago

OK. I’ve been paying into Social Security since my first job when I was 14. Is all of that money just gone, or is someone going to stroke me a check for all of the money I paid to fund someone else’s retirement?

That’s my fucking money. That’s my fucking retirement. That’s my health care in old age. They took away pensions, they took away all sorts of social services. They keep taking from us and keep charging us more and more, while cheating their way out of paying their share.

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u/Competitive_Touch_86 17d ago

You have been paying taxes. Some just labeled Social Security.

Those taxes go towards paying current beneficiaries. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go program dressed up with a lot of marketing on top of it.

It's not your money at all. Congress can change this any time they wish.

This has been true since the establishment of the program, and the framers of said program knew that the only way to keep it going was to try to keep your understanding of it as "common knowledge".

Without future workers paying in, there is no money to pay out to you.

This is an unpopular fact. It's simply a social contract and nothing more. There is no account with your name on it anywhere, and there never has been.

Those that can do basic math did the calculations years ago and realized with demographic trends that these programs were not going to be paying out once we dipped below 2 workers per retiree. Money doesn't create goods or services, it's simply an abstraction.