Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming , Co-Chair of Obama's deficit > commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he > compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. > August, 2010. > > Here's a response in a letter from a unknown fellow in Montana ... > I think he is a little ticked off! He also tells it like it is ! > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > "Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight.. > > 1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY > YEARS. > > 2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 > years old. I am now 63). > > 3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other > Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for > decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give > OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus > bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme > that would have made Bernie Madoff proud. > > 4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the > proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing > retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to > age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the > goalposts YET AGAIN. > > 5 I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare > from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the > game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy > to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay > the bills. > > 6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our > entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? > Because you incompetent bastards spent our money so profligately that > you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come > to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > > To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "********" on > your incompetence. Well, Captain ********, I have a few questions for > YOU. > > 1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during > your pathetic 50-year political career? > > 2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and > how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the > American taxpayers? > > 3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance? > > 4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you > proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, > have you exempted yourself and your political cronies? > > It is you, Captain ********, and your political co-conspirators called > > > > Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases > > > > who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from > > > > millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes. That's right, > > > > sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of > > > > advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and > > > > you know that we know it. > > And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch .
To an extent I agree with the old guy's sentiments, but... (Warning: Tirade. Dead ahead. As a boomer who's been sounding the alarm for over 30 years to deaf ears, I'm entitled.) The truth? By 1960, any junior college student minoring in math could have told us that all these entitlement programs were mathematically doomed. And many did warn us. For at least 50 years, any marginally informed American has understood that these programs would come to grief. Tens of millions more paid no heed to the warnings. Deep down they knew, but they plugged their ears and said "la, la, la, la, la, la" until someone changed the subject back to football. At this late date, it's simply not credible to claim any surprise. And, unless you are mentally retarded to the point where you can actually be fooled, you have no claim to indignation either. None whatsoever. (Fooling yourself doesn't count.) You knew. We all knew. Now it's 2011 - the year the oldest boomers turn 65. The exact year they've been saying (for decades) that the crisis would really rear it's head. And so it is. We should have been indignant decades ago when there was a chance to change course. Before we dug the hole. Now all the money's gone. We let a bunch of obviously lying assholes squander it (along with a lot more that we never even had) while simultaneously bull***tting us that it would magically reappear just when we needed it to retire. Not only did we not lift a finger when we were lied to - we actually voted for them. So, we also lied to ourselves. We didn't even vote for the ones who told the smallest lies, either - we elected the biggest and best liars that our corruption could produce. And we voted for them over and over. For decades. Once in a great while, when someone truthful popped up, we scorned them. Then we went right back to voting for the best liars. Why, we were so clever that we could not just eat our cake, we could also give it to third world countries, send it to the moon, blow it on scams and pointless military adventures, and we'd still have it at the end of the day! We weren't America's greatest generation. We weren't the greediest generation, either. We were the dumbest generation.
There were a good many of us that saw this coming and spoke loudly about it but our voices were not listened to. We are the ones that have been prepping for our whole lives in one manner or another. We are the tin-foil hat conspiracy nut gun owning lib-tard that the republicans scorn and the democrats scorn and we are growing stronger and louder and angrier. maybe we represent only a very small percentage, maybe less than 3%, but this time, we will be heard. We don't expect entitlements. We don't expect to "Retire". We expect to work and fight until we die. And we hope to give our grandchildren a chance. Our children are already screwed.
And there are a larger number of us who saw it coming, spoke about it but didn't really scream from the rooftops, and set about doing what we could to prepare ourselves and our families as well as we could while not sacrificing now for the future. I am a younger member of the "boomers" (born in '49) who actually retired about 10 years ago after paying off my "retreat" (my current and forever home), teaching our kids not to rely on the government and setting up as best we could for either surviving a collapse coming during our lives or living relatively comfortably through a continued slow decline. In a way, I have been prepping since the early 80s (actually earlier, since my father instilled in me a need to be ready for any eventuality that I see as a possibility...and he died in '68). While I saw the probability that SS and VA Comp would cease to exist in my lifetime, it makes me no less angry to see our supposed "representatives" ignoring the oncoming train while making sure there is still a large layer of cream for them to skim off the top...or less disgusted at my fellow citizens who keep doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. Having known the overgrown sreet gang was there doesn't mean one cannot be angry at their robberies.
You, (PaxMentis) and I are in the same place, and the same boat..... I can remember my father bringing home 20 cases of US Civil Defense canned Drinking Water in the early 60's...I grew up in a Prepping family. My home had a Root Cellar in the basement that had Mom's pantry in it, as well as room for the entire family.... It was a Concrete (Bunker) Room built under the Front Porch of the house, my father had built in 1948. He was a very conservative BANKER, and taught ALL his children to be the same. His teachings have served "Me" and my siblings, well, since, and we have ALL passed these things on to our children and Grandchildren. I can start collecting my Govt. Money (SS) in August, and I NEED all those Sheeple, to keep putting their money IN, so I can GET MY MONEY OUT....
He did nail it but the same thing can be said by public employees who have paid into a retirement system for 30 years and now have the people they work for saying its to much, you should not get it, a contract is a contract.
In Alaska, our Legislature figured out that the Public Employees unfunded Retirement Programs were getting "Way out of Control" TWO Decades ago, and then created a Tier System for New Employees. They did NOT take away ANYTHING that was promised to older employees, but they DID change what was offered , and how much the employees share of the COSTS, would be. We are up to Tier 5 or 6 NOW... Tier 1 was the original, and they have Healthcare for life, and a generous Pension, that the State funded completely. Tier 2, is just a little less, and the employee had to contribute a small portion. Tier 3, is what my Wife is, gets a fair Pension, but no Medical for life, because she only vested in the pension portion and didn't want to work the extra 5 years to vest the medical portion. Any NEW employees, are now Tier 5 or 6, and they pay IN, a fair share for both Pension and Medical, that is very similar to current Private systems. The Alaska Constitution has a clause that says, Government CAN NOT SPEND, more than THEY TAKE IN, PERIOD. If other States had such a clause they wouldn't be in these Financial Fixes, they find themselves in. Alaska is one of the FEW States that has RESERVES, and NO DEBT, that it isn't able to cover with those Reserves. Now if we could just get those STUPID FEDs to quite REQUIRING us to Fund their STUPID Programs, with OUR Money, we would be just fine.....
