Originally Posted by Hotel Kilo (Post 4004203)

I grew up in a trailer park, in a single wide trailer with my mom and 3 brothers. My father was a drunk and beat my mother and us. She walked out on him taking us with her. She worked 4 jobs at one point to keep us fed and clothed and a trailer roof over our heads. She finally met a great guy and they wound up getting married.

We did not grow up rich at all. My step father worked 2 jobs most of the time and almost right up until he had a heart attack and was forced to stop working. But by then me and my brothers had already left the nest. We all worked hard. I worked hard in school, studied and did well for myself. I worked as a teen to help out as did all of my brothers. Myself, I went to college with a scholarship. One of my brothers was accepted and attended the US Air Force Academy. My other brother went into the trades, learned HVAC and now runs his own HVAC company. He's a multi-millionaire.

Despite us growing up poor, we somehow managed to make it. That's the American dream brother. We didn't ask for handouts, we didn't blame "the rich", we just set goals and worked hard to achieve them.

Originally Posted by gloopy (Post 4004218)

Everyone understand how it works. But it is a promised benefit and a third rail of politics. No way the wealth distributionalists will have the political capital to just steal it all after the fact. “Rich” airline pilots will still get their benefits unless the Leninists get full control.

BTW how rich is rich? If someone is rich, shouldn’t they also be stripped of Medicare and have to pay full retail inflated costs until they’re no longer “rich”? If not why not?

Originally Posted by Hotel Kilo (Post 4004229)

Our privilege was so great it earned us white bread, baloney and mayo sammiches for dinner many nights of the week...

Originally Posted by demon llama (Post 4004272)

Not interested in engaging you in your political diatribe. But clearly not everyone understands how SS works.

Originally Posted by demon llama (Post 4004274)

If I had a dime for every millionaire airline captain with a bootstraps story…..

Originally Posted by gloopy (Post 4004278)

While I would free that most don’t get that the inner machinations of it, that transcends R or D by a flyover country mile. People paying into it for half a century being told it will be stolen from them for Marxist theology wealth redistribution simply won’t go over well. What you advocate for most likely will not happen. Instead they will just taper benefits for everyone and bridge the gap with devalued inflated dollars like all fiat schemes do.

SS is “too big to (politically) fail” so it will be watered down for everyone. Also, saying your lifetime paid in benefits will be completely stolen from you because you’re “rich” and don’t need it is the definition of a political diatribe.

Originally Posted by demon llama (Post 4004274)

If I had a dime for every millionaire airline captain with a bootstraps story…..

Originally Posted by Gunfighter (Post 4004280)

Lots of them out there and even a few millionaire FO bootstrap stories. That's the beauty of our economic system. You won't find nearly as many in a socialist system.

Originally Posted by Hotel Kilo (Post 4004296)

I'm proud of it. I could have ended up a drugged out meth head, or in prison, like so many of those I grew up around. Thank God I live in America where we have these opportunities to achieve even when not given the golden ticket from birth. We all have choices.

Originally Posted by demon llama (Post 4004274)

If I had a dime for every millionaire airline captain with a bootstraps story…..

Originally Posted by Hotel Kilo (Post 4004301)

This is an amazing country we live in and we have opportunities here few have in any other place.

Originally Posted by demon llama (Post 4004289)

I never said that.

Most likely course of action to keep the program solvent will be to increase the top wage that gets taxed.

You haven’t paid into anything. You’ve paid a tax. Current intake funds current benefits. Future intakes need to fund future benefits.