...that I am cared for in my dotage?
We need to look, from a Constitutional and sensible perspective at what I am entitled to as an American senior citizen. The debate over Social Security, its solvency and whether any cuts are required or fair is raging. I am one of the senior citizens who is effected by any change made. On June 4th, I turn 62 and become eligible. I'm not gonna take it, I can't survive on it at that level. I don't even want to stop working. I kinda like getting up every morning and being useful. But I've paid into the system for 40 years....
Here's what frightens me. I have factored Social Security into my plans for my dotage. I have fallen for the ruse. I now expect government to care for me, at the exclusion of my own person preparation, and the caring involvement of my children and family. What a sucker I've been. I feel foolish..I feel "owned".
You see, our Founding Fathers guaranteed me "the pursuit of happiness". They didn't, nor did they intend to, afford me the happiness itself. Their intention was for me to pursue it. "Catching" that happiness is on me.
Social Security is the illusion of giving me that happiness. The illusion I didn't have to pursue it, and that, my friends, was the great lie. In spite of the fact that I am on the doorstep of my dotage, I still have a brain. In fact, and unfortunately, it seems to understand the subtleties better. I now understand that I couldn't have that pittance taken out of my pay and have it support me. I now understand that government money managers are vastly inferior to the ones who work for me at my brokerage. I now understand that to have any life under Social Security, I have to work until I'm 72. But now that I'm in the anteroom of that event, it doesn't look so damned bad. I like working.
So here's my thought. To those who are younger than me I want to say two things: 1. I urge you to manage your own future. To embrace the words "the pursuit" and do so. Forge your own future without government. You'll end up happier. And 2. Don't make your decisions about Social Security based on me. Cut my benefits. Make me work longer. Build a system that requires that my children and grandchildren understand that it is through their own labors that their future is forged. It's about the "pursuit" and not about the happiness.
And if that has draconian consequences for me, it will be a small gift to those children. I love them more than life anyway. I doubt I'll die in the gutter like the doomsayers rhetoric would tell you. And if I do, and my grandchildren have a future built on their pursuit of happiness, so be it.
I'm good with that.
We need to look, from a Constitutional and sensible perspective at what I am entitled to as an American senior citizen. The debate over Social Security, its solvency and whether any cuts are required or fair is raging. I am one of the senior citizens who is effected by any change made. On June 4th, I turn 62 and become eligible. I'm not gonna take it, I can't survive on it at that level. I don't even want to stop working. I kinda like getting up every morning and being useful. But I've paid into the system for 40 years....
Here's what frightens me. I have factored Social Security into my plans for my dotage. I have fallen for the ruse. I now expect government to care for me, at the exclusion of my own person preparation, and the caring involvement of my children and family. What a sucker I've been. I feel foolish..I feel "owned".
You see, our Founding Fathers guaranteed me "the pursuit of happiness". They didn't, nor did they intend to, afford me the happiness itself. Their intention was for me to pursue it. "Catching" that happiness is on me.
Social Security is the illusion of giving me that happiness. The illusion I didn't have to pursue it, and that, my friends, was the great lie. In spite of the fact that I am on the doorstep of my dotage, I still have a brain. In fact, and unfortunately, it seems to understand the subtleties better. I now understand that I couldn't have that pittance taken out of my pay and have it support me. I now understand that government money managers are vastly inferior to the ones who work for me at my brokerage. I now understand that to have any life under Social Security, I have to work until I'm 72. But now that I'm in the anteroom of that event, it doesn't look so damned bad. I like working.
So here's my thought. To those who are younger than me I want to say two things: 1. I urge you to manage your own future. To embrace the words "the pursuit" and do so. Forge your own future without government. You'll end up happier. And 2. Don't make your decisions about Social Security based on me. Cut my benefits. Make me work longer. Build a system that requires that my children and grandchildren understand that it is through their own labors that their future is forged. It's about the "pursuit" and not about the happiness.
And if that has draconian consequences for me, it will be a small gift to those children. I love them more than life anyway. I doubt I'll die in the gutter like the doomsayers rhetoric would tell you. And if I do, and my grandchildren have a future built on their pursuit of happiness, so be it.
I'm good with that.
No, no, NO! You just don't understand!
ReplyDeleteYou're supposed to be frail and unable to care or fend for yourself. You're supposed to present your sob story in such a way that others will feel compassion and realize that the only humane thing that we Americans can do is to continue to fund a system that will eventually consume 100% or more of tax revenues.
Hi, I'm John and only a few years behind you age-wise, and I agree with you 100%.
I would much rather see changes made to SS, Medicare and Medicaid now, while we still have the ability to choose our reform rather than after we have lost all credibility with creditors and have no choice to make immediate and indiscriminate deep cuts into not only those, but all entitlements.
I pray that we as a nation will wake up in time to avert such a tragedy.