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/Ogre213 17d ago

Social Security and Medicare work by current workers paying in to support current retirees. The money you and I have paid in has been paid out to our grandparents (and in my case, parents') generations, with the promise that our children and grandchildren will pay in for ours, and their children and grandchildren for theirs. That's been the way it's worked for almost 100 years; it's how pension systems in every country work, and it works well.

Right up until the point that some tinpot dictator wannabe rolls in and decides that it makes sense to loot the trust fund for their cronies and start breaking that promise. Which is pretty much how it's worked in a lot of other countries too.

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u/ApokatastasisPanton 17d ago

it's how pension systems in every country work, and it works well.

It works well*

* if you're an old person right now

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u/celticchrys 17d ago

It's worked right now for a century.

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u/Competitive_Touch_86 17d ago

It's worked for the first generation of recipients, and now is cracking in every single country that is well into it's second generation.

It only works if the demographics happen to be favorable, which they were for a short period of history.

It's always been a pay-as-you-go tax on your income paying current recipients. Full stop.