Okay. No, I wasn't in the military. I was denied service due to a hearing problem. I was a cop instead. However, I think veteran's services are the debt we owe them for fighting for their country, and in many cases suffering lifelong health problems for doing their duty. However, given how much trouble we're in, even cutting veteran's benefits might have to be on the table.
You were a cop... I must have been confused, or you said something that made me think you were in the military. I think I recall you teach combat fighting, and that was why I thought you were ex military.
Anyway.. I think it would be kind of messed up if you thought your mom should not get her ss, but you shouldn't lose any of your own.
If the economy collapses entirely, all those social programs are going to vanish like a snowflake hitting a red-hot woodstove. We can cut some now, or lose everything in 2, 5, maybe 10 years.
I don't want to be alarmist but we really are on the edge of being in real trouble, worse than most people can imagine. We added roughly a trillion dollars in debt to our load last year; this year it will probably be more than a trillion. Our debt is killing us. Countries are dropping the US Dollar left and right... if this goes on, the price of imports will rise dramatically. If the rest of the world loses faith in the US dollar because of our massive unpaid and unsupported debts (and they're getting close to that right now), our already tottering economy could suffer a fatal blow.
Most people these days think being poor is not being able to afford cable TV and a new car. They don't know what real economic trouble is, but I'm afraid we may find out if we don't bring spending under control.
It could be as bad as 1929-1939 all over again. Ever heard Depression-era people talking about how some families had to choose to let some of their children starve and die, so that they could feed the other children enough to keep them alive? We'll have far worse to worry about than Social Security and food stamps if we suffer that level of collapse again... or worse. The Great Depression was somewhat mitigated by the fact that most Americans still lived on the family farm back then... nowadays most Americans live in cities and barely know how to grow a fern, let along a field of corn. It could get really bad.
We can't keep adding a trillion-plus to our debt every year.
It.
Is.
Not.
Sustainable.
I agree. There is a lot of Amish people where I live, and sometimes in the winter the storms get so bad people lose electricity and water pipes freeze. If it weren't for the Amish people knowing how to farm, can food, and heat their houses without electricity and their willingness to help the community when the power is out, then there would be a lot of frozen, dead people here every winter.
I just finished college.. Finance and Accounting, and the income is really good. Those are the type of skills that are considered more valuable today, not knowing how to farm or garden to feed yourself. However, those stills are stil very basis, fundamental, and important to have.
My grandfather was an investor and a Freemason... He was very smart. He built his own home and when he wanted a boat, he built it himself. He read a lot of science and popular mechanics magazines, and he learned how to do a lot of things. He also built model airplanes with remote controls and designed the engines inside them...
That same grandfather isn't as independent now... He had a major heart surgery and a hip replacement. He has fallen two times in past few years, and he is legally handicapped and his bones are twisted up with arthritis. He gets SS and Medicare, and the Medicaid is his life line now... the grumpy old man has to take several pills a day, and goes to the doctor regularly. He needs his Medicaid, and it's barely enough given the added cost of my grandmother's health needs too (she's diabetic).
Interestingly both sides of my grandparents build their own homes... and both knew a little about farming.
I have thought of all these things before, and that's one of the reasons why I am active in my local Habitat for Humanity chapter. It's also another reason why I don't think supporting government housing is appropriate or sustainable in the long run. There are families in homeless shelters, because there isn't enough money in the state budgets to give them government housing and there is no more government housing available. Teaching the proper skills and giving them the tools is more important than giving the people money. It also requires the community to be willing to give their time and effort, to build the homes or donate money...
Today, we wouldn't survive a depression... definitely not, but it's our own fault for no longer placing value on the most basic, fundamental skills that kept our grandparents alive and people alive before there was government assistance.
(It is that time of year isn't it?)