Social security reform - aren't we forgetting something?

[middleagedgamer]

One of the biggest frustrations with today's social security system is that there are now third and fourth generations of people who, like their parents and grandparents, have no knowledge of making a living other than to go to their mailbox every month and pick up a government check. Their official, confessed career goal is to have as many kids as possible so that they can get more money from the state, which means that the welfare bums are not just reproducing; they're multiplying. Every set of welfare bum parents has six kids, that means that the number of welfare bums has tripled in a generation.

Advocates for reform think that we should take those benefits away from people who don't really need them, and make them go out and get a job.

But, is it really that simple?

These people are 30 and 40 years old, and they've never had a job, and they've never watched their parents drive off to work. I can't imagine their resume is all that up-to-date.

What kind of job can they get when they've never had a single job? We're not even talking about "I had one part time job at McDonalds when I was sixteen, and never worked again." No, not even that much.

Who would hire them? They'd just end up on the streets.

"Change? Can you spare some change?"

Has anyone really thought about that?

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

How do you get on social security at age 20?

 

[middleagedgamer]

How do you get on social security at age 20?

Disability is one way.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Disability is one way.

Wouldnt one at the very least have to get a doctor to sign off on the person being disabled and if the person was not at least technically disabled could not that doctor get charged with fraud and malpractice?

 

[middleagedgamer]

Wouldnt one at the very least have to get a doctor to sign off on the person being disabled and if the person was not at least technically disabled could not that doctor get charged with fraud and malpractice?

That's only one way to get social security.

Also, having kids, and not having enough money to support them yourself, is one of the most commonly-abused ways.

 

[Deuce]

There's a lot fewer people doing this than you seem to think.

 

[middleagedgamer]

There's a lot fewer people doing this than you seem to think.

Then, why do so many people advocate reforming it?

Also, if so few people are doing this, why is social security so expensive?

 

[Deuce]

Then, why do so many people advocate reforming it?

Also, if so few people are doing this, why is social security so expensive?

So I gather that it never occurred to you that some of the people on social security/disability are exactly the sort of people who are supposed to be on it?

 

[middleagedgamer]

So I gather that it never occurred to you that some of the people on social security/disability are exactly the sort of people who are supposed to be on it?

Then, why are they wanting to reform it?

 

[reefedjib]

Then, why are they wanting to reform it?

Because we cannot afford it going forward. Too many retirees living too long.

 

[Deuce]

Then, why are they wanting to reform it?

All these dang old people keep living longer than we previously anticipated, and we've stopped having so many babies.

It's not that the program is wasteful, that it isn't valuable, or that it isn't working, it's just that demographics are changing to make it difficult to support properly.