Would someone please give me the ELI5 on why Republicans want to destroy Social Security? Do they want to privatize it by making everyone put money into a 401K that is controlled by Wall Street money managers, who then skim their share? Are they STILL pissed about Roosevelt? Are rich Republicans pissed that poor people might not have to eat cat food in their old age? Is it that the foundational idea is that we all contribute…and that’s COMMUNISM??? I just don’t understand their motivation.
Certain people are staunchly against what they call “handouts”, even though Social Security is not that at all. The argument they make is that it costs other money to operate and maintain that they wouldn’t need to spend if they just TRUST in whatever company would be managing that money if they privatize it. It’s one of the dumbest arguments you’ll hear about social programs.
The sad part is that I would hesitate to even call it a social program either - it’s the bare fucking minimum. It’s just taking the money that you paid into it and paying it back out to you later in life. It provides some financial structure and stability to those who otherwise would not have it, and that’s important, sure. But considering that this is height of our vital government social programs, then the bar is already so pathetically low. This is fighting to keep the scraps when private industry is already milking us for healthcare, education, public transit, utilities, etc, etc, etc, and it’s pitiful that we have to fight to even keep this.
They don’t want to pay ANY taxes; they want you to pay taxes.
It doesn’t matter if stuff fails; in fact that’s a feature not a bug. The very rich will pay for the stuff they need, and they DON’T care if you or everyone else suffers…. If you are not rich that is your own fault.
You were correct until tbe last sentence. That might be an excuse occasionally but it isn’t actually part of the thought process. They simply dont care if you or everyone else suffers as long as they get what they want.
As some others have pointed out, paying social security directly costs companies money.
However, there is also a secondary set of costs to social security. Social security dramatically decreases a companies grip on a worker as the worker grows closer to retirement. A lot of workers would not be able to retire with out the income that social security provides. Without social security, once a worker passes the age at which they become less desirable for other companies to hire away then they essentially become slaves. And knowing you’re heading towards what is essentially slavery is going to have a lot of knock-on effects too. Pay and compensation negotiations, changing companies, how afraid people will be of being fired, ect… Are all going to swing heavily into the companies favor.
In short, oligarchs want to get richer and want more power (there’s never enough), you would think that poor conditions would wake people up, but as long as there less fortunate ones as us we are fine with it. It is easy to set us up against each other by telling that our misfortune is because of minorities and immigrants.
There’s a book called On Freedom by Timothy Snyder that talks about it. I think everyone should read it. Once you are aware of the mechanisms it is easy to see.
You would think that Republicans breaking social security would surely lose them votes, but it is really easy to manipulate their base and tell them that there’s not enough money in SSN because immigrants are getting free money and once again we are fighting with each other and once again oligarchs walk away with more wealth.
Would someone please give me the ELI5 on why Republicans want to destroy Social Security? Do they want to privatize it by making everyone put money into a 401K that is controlled by Wall Street money managers, who then skim their share? Are they STILL pissed about Roosevelt? Are rich Republicans pissed that poor people might not have to eat cat food in their old age? Is it that the foundational idea is that we all contribute…and that’s COMMUNISM??? I just don’t understand their motivation.
Certain people are staunchly against what they call “handouts”, even though Social Security is not that at all. The argument they make is that it costs other money to operate and maintain that they wouldn’t need to spend if they just TRUST in whatever company would be managing that money if they privatize it. It’s one of the dumbest arguments you’ll hear about social programs.
The sad part is that I would hesitate to even call it a social program either - it’s the bare fucking minimum. It’s just taking the money that you paid into it and paying it back out to you later in life. It provides some financial structure and stability to those who otherwise would not have it, and that’s important, sure. But considering that this is height of our vital government social programs, then the bar is already so pathetically low. This is fighting to keep the scraps when private industry is already milking us for healthcare, education, public transit, utilities, etc, etc, etc, and it’s pitiful that we have to fight to even keep this.
To do my best ELI5::
They don’t want to pay ANY taxes; they want you to pay taxes.
It doesn’t matter if stuff fails; in fact that’s a feature not a bug. The very rich will pay for the stuff they need, and they DON’T care if you or everyone else suffers…. If you are not rich that is your own fault.
You were correct until tbe last sentence. That might be an excuse occasionally but it isn’t actually part of the thought process. They simply dont care if you or everyone else suffers as long as they get what they want.
As some others have pointed out, paying social security directly costs companies money.
However, there is also a secondary set of costs to social security. Social security dramatically decreases a companies grip on a worker as the worker grows closer to retirement. A lot of workers would not be able to retire with out the income that social security provides. Without social security, once a worker passes the age at which they become less desirable for other companies to hire away then they essentially become slaves. And knowing you’re heading towards what is essentially slavery is going to have a lot of knock-on effects too. Pay and compensation negotiations, changing companies, how afraid people will be of being fired, ect… Are all going to swing heavily into the companies favor.
In short, oligarchs want to get richer and want more power (there’s never enough), you would think that poor conditions would wake people up, but as long as there less fortunate ones as us we are fine with it. It is easy to set us up against each other by telling that our misfortune is because of minorities and immigrants.
There’s a book called On Freedom by Timothy Snyder that talks about it. I think everyone should read it. Once you are aware of the mechanisms it is easy to see.
You would think that Republicans breaking social security would surely lose them votes, but it is really easy to manipulate their base and tell them that there’s not enough money in SSN because immigrants are getting free money and once again we are fighting with each other and once again oligarchs walk away with more wealth.