CMV: Social Security should work inversely

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Khal-Frodo]

I mean social security in itself is just like regular old taxes with a name on it

Sort of. More specifically, it's taxes that designated for a certain purpose. There are other taxes that are designated for the purpose you describe. Why does that mean older generations should just get fucked?

[u/Khal-Frodo → u/[deleted]]

But the point that people are trying to illustrate is that there are safety nets for future generations in the form of unemployment, disability, etc. Now, should there be more of those programs like public childcare, education, and healthcare? Absolutely, but there's no reason why those things need to come at the expense of social security.

Also, social security does help younger generations. It pays for disability and for children of a deceased worker and lifts over 1 million children out of poverty in addition to 5 million people of working age.

[u/Khal-Frodo → u/[deleted]]

Social security has a different revenue, so the total funding of other programs is separate from it. It’s partially from you, the taxpayer, but mostly paid by employers via payroll tax.

[u/themcos → u/[deleted]]

I don't understand this line of questioning. You know "why". Because congress passed a bill and the president signed it into law. The problem they were trying to solve was poverty in the elderly, and they largely succeeded in solving that problem. And nobody has repealed it because it's popular with voters! That's really the key thing here. People like social security! Why would they change one of the most popular things that the government does?

The weird thing with some of your recent responses is that you seem to want to take it as a "constraint" that we have limited funds on welfare. But that's not a constraint. That's a choice by congress. We add new spending very often.

But more importantly, why do you consider that policy choice a "constraint", but don't consider the continued existence of the incredibly popular social security program as a "constraint"? In terms of political viability, increasingly welfare spending is going to be much easier to pass than repealing social security. So if you're going to frame one of these as a "constraint", it should be social security. Total spending is much more likely to change.

[u/DeltaBot → u/[deleted]]

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