this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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A Boring Dystopia
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GenX here. Got some free financial advice in 1993 or so. Asked about Social Security being cancelled because my entire class ('89) said we didn't expect to receive it.
She looked me straight in the eye and said, "No. There will be riots in the streets before Social Security is cancelled. This is a non-issue, you're getting it. Any other concerns?"
GenZ, 30-years later, "We're gonna get cancelled!"
No fuck you won't. Old people vote. Isn't that what they're always bitching about? Think we'll shoot our retirement straight in the skull?!
Also Gen X, graduated in '96, and was warned by my econ/government teacher that we need to have well funded IRAs, because we won't be getting enough social security benefits to even pay for food, much less rent, medicine, or healthcare.
This is what they mean when they say Social Security is basically bankrupt. It won't pay for shit, and I live with people who currently draw on SS. It already doesn't even pay the 1/3 of their retirement it was supposed to. We don't get the retirement plans (pensions) from the companies we work for that was supposed to cover that last 1/3 of our retirements.
It was supposed to be a three-pronged plan: Social Security, 401k, and corporate pension. Each of these has problems on their own, but a hybrid solution could cover for each other's issues.
Now, corporate pensions are rare, 401k's are highly vulnerable to stock market crashes, and Social Security is being slowly strangled.
The demographics are probably a bigger part of it. The ratio of people collecting to people paying in is much larger now and the length of time people collect on it is longer since people live longer now.