patrick.net

Peasants? Most of these hold some kind of a "management" job. That means they will keep it, not letting younger people in. LOL, I think we need mandatory IQ testing after 60 for any manager. I don't mind people keep working after 65 if they are able to do productive work, but they should not block the way of younger ones.

So the message is save for your retirement? I did, in my Calpers 401k. Its down - a LOT! In social security - good luck seeing that in 25 years.

Seriously how are we supposed to save when all that happens is our retirements just bleed away in fees and market losses?

This is part of the class warfare that is being waged against the 99% by the 1%.

They eliminated pensions through many legal and financial tricks. They allowed corporations who went bankrupt jettison their pension plans. This had the effect of allowing all of those deferred wages that the 99% earned to be sucked up into banks and other stake holders of corporate debt (a.k.a. the 1%)

Then they rolled out IRAs and 401ks touting these instruments as THE way for the 99% to save for retirement. This is yet another instrument that the 1% uses to remove wealth even more directly from the 99% in order to continue to increase their already bloated hoard. Now the 99% contributes part of their gross salary (not deferred wages) to plans that use that money to gamble in the stock market which is yet another instrument that the 1% uses to suck the wealth away from the 99%. Some employers "benificently" "match" these worker wage contributions with "matching funds" so that even more money goes into the casino that we call "the stock market" further enriching the 1%.

The only retirement instrument that the 99% has left that is still actually stable is Social Security.

Don't worry. The 1% have been working to take away all funds gathered in the Social Security Fund (which has a huge surplus that will be used to pay benefits to the generation of "sell outs" known as the Baby Boomers when and if they can retire).

They have been using the balance sheets to hide a big portion of the deficit by placing the Social Security Fund on the asset side of the equation when in reality the Social Security Fund isn't part of the Federal Budget because it's a separate entity that isn't to be touched by anyone except benficiaries.

Now we have a cynical and sad crack in the security wall around Social Security in the form of a temporary reduction in "payroll taxes" for the 99%. What the 99% still doesn't realize is that this is only stealing from themselves. It puts less money into the Social Security Fund depriving the fund of money that would extend Social Security's viability into the future. It will hasten the drawing down of the giant surplus that will be used to pay the Baby Boomers' benefits.

All of the 1% shills on the right keep rolling out proposals to "privatize" Social Security so that the giant fund (the last protected store of wealth of the 99% that so far the 1% hasn't been able to raid) can be sucked into the casino we call "the stock market" so that it may be "managed" by the 1% for the "benefit" of the 99%.

We all know how well things went when private corporations managed pension plans right? (see above)

The 1% will not rest until it can get its grubby slimy hands on the Social Security Fund. They want to steal the last store of wealth that the 99% has.

If we continue on this path of allowing the 1% to continue to use smoke screens to steal any retirement that we the 99% will have we go back to how it was before FDR's programs.

Hint: Old people homeless on the streets, sick, wasting away, and dying because they are no longer useful to the 1% because they cannot work and cannot be exploited for their labor. Therefore the old become useless products of society that are left to die in agony.

The other option for the old back then was for the family wage earners struggling to raise their children to take in an elderly relative to care for him or her.

So, if we eliminate Medicare and allow the 1% to steal the Social Security Fund, be prepared to take in your elders into your home and take complete financial responsibility for their care. It won't be long before we will all be living in tents in the parks all over the country. I believe these sad "camping grounds" used to be called "Hoovervilles." We refer to these "camps" as "shanty towns."

Ah, don't you just love the vision that the 1% has for the elderly and anyone else that they can't exploit for labor?