Hahaha! I've been called a lot of things, never "hysterical". I find it fitting that it would come from someone who has never met me, let me give you a summary of myself:Darrell Green Fan wrote: Tue Mar 11, 2025 7:15 amI'm not assuming anything, simply responding to his claims. Simmsy is convinced my Social Security check will stop coming, he literally issued a challenge on this to me. He also said retirement accounts would "disappear". He didn't discuss market dips, he literally said retirement accounts would disappear. If that is not what he meant then he should have used a different word right?The Sisko wrote: Mon Mar 10, 2025 7:34 pmYou're making a number of assumptions. First, your portfolio doesn't have to go to zero for it to affect your retirement. This is even more true if you're already in retirement or close to it. Unlike someone in their 20's, you don't have time to wait for the market to rebound. Now maybe you get lucky and it does, but how much will that benefit you if you've taken a significant hit due to the market tanking, then seven or eight years later, when it does start to rebound, you've spent another big chunk of that lowered value to survive in the interim.Darrell Green Fan wrote: Mon Mar 10, 2025 5:32 pm
I remember all your doomsday predictions on ES too if Trump is elected. I stand by my position, yours appears to be hysterical as it was back then. Nobody's 401 will go to $0, that's just crazy talk. And I do not believe they will stop my social security benefits once they have started.
Peace brother.
Your second assumption is that because your check doesn't decrease much or at all, SS isn't affected. You're already getting your check, great. However, they've recently announced plans to close some SS offices around the country. So what happens when someone who lives a long distance away, or who has transportation issues, or a host of other things that affect access, isn't able to get to the office to apply for benefits or correct a problem with their SS benefits? You're being hysterical!" Am I? Because that's exactly how red states have neutralized numerous programs they don't like, e.g., healthcare expansion. They erect bureaucratic barriers like work requirements that sound neutral or even beneficial but are actually designed to make it difficult for people to get access. So no, they don't kill the program, but they limit it, eventually, making benefits inaccessible for most people. So, they can claim they still have X safety net program, but just try actually getting any benefits. https://tinyurl.com/nhzd59he This is how these people operate.
Finally, you're also assuming we'll have free and fair elections again. My wife thinks it's mostly a done deal, that it's over, but for once, I'm the optimist. I give it a 60/40 chance that we don't have free elections again, or anytime soon. If that happens, they can kill SS or do anything else they damn well please. "You think we're headed toward Russian style 'elections'? OMG, you're really out there now! Lol!" Let's examine how we got here, once again with the understanding that things aren't always exactly as predicted, but the outcome is what's important.
First, there's control over mostly social media, but later, much of the MSM mostly bent the knee as well. The Grand Oligarch's Party has long wanted to DX Public Broadcasting because it's a reliable news source, 'er a "biased" news source. It's possible they pull it off with PB and other real news sources. However, even if they don't bother with any of the others, they've already improved their propaganda position just since the election. Combine propaganda from all directions with an at best, lightly educated 'Muricun populace, the ability to make people scared to demonstrate, and the oligarch's have already won.
But wait, there's more. They've packed the SCOTUS and gerrymandered the hell out of a system built by colonial era planters who's primary goals were to maintain a political system built on free labor, cheap labor, i.e., poor whites, and limiting political power to a small segment of the country, then calling that "freedom". So no, I don't doubt we'll have elections again, but the question is the degree to which the Grand Oligarch's Party can increase their ability to rig an already rigged system. Remember, they don't have to get 80% or 90% of a sham vote like Putin. All they have to do is get 51% of voters in a rigged system and they win, no matter how unpopular they are. https://tinyurl.com/mrxh8wwr
Remember, "It can't happen here" can be deadly. It can, and to some degree, it already is happening as we watch.
I was simply addressing these hysterical claims. See my post above. I understand these changes may or will impact others, never said otherwise. Again I was simply addressing Simmsy's doomsday claims, nothing more nothing less.
I'm more than two decades of being away from even thinking about collecting SS, my parents are long dead and I work in an industry that pays a lot of cash. If they take SS away, I'm pretty confident in saying that I won't be directly effected. However, I'm not an asshole, I want the people of this country to get what they need. I especially want them to get the SS benefits that they paid into, I want you to have it, you deserve it.
When I said "challenge accepted", I didn't mean from me, I mean't the GOP. They want your SS benefits and they ARE coming for them. Do you really think DOGE has it's tentacles in SSA to protect it? You think they plan to lay off 12% of it's workforce to leave it alone? You think they're spreading the lie of billions in fraud to save it? You think they're pushing the false claim of 150/200/300 year old people (Trump said 300 years old...I know...but he said it) collecting on it for posterity? They're gearing this lil' piggy up for the market and it's going to be a fat one.
Now, I too thought the GOP wouldn't do something so stupid, destroying SS would be a death knell for any party. However, they don't seem to be changing course. Townhall of GOP constituents pissed off? Don't listen to them, walk out and just stop holding townhalls. Doesn't sound like they're changing course to me. They're calling their own angry voters "paid protesters" who are funded by George Soros, the lie is set...they're not changing course. These are the same people who we thought would never actually touch abortion rights, but they did. Then we thought they'll definitely pay the price for it in the voting booth...not really.
You seem to forget that Trump's biggest (and only) piece of significant legislation in his first term was his first tax cut in 2017. The cut that went very heavily to the rich (LINK) and he's going to play his "Greatest Hits" again, but with a massive tax cut to the rich. If you think the GOP isn't going to try and pass it while they're in power, you'd be wrong again. They're spreading the lie of no tax on tips/overtime and $5k - $8k stimulus checks so people will be for this tax cut. I work and live with maga and republicans, they believe this lie and a lot of them are for this tax cut.
Perhaps you're trying to say that the GOP CAN'T pull it off because of their numbers, they can. Its improbable, but not impossible.
You accused me of putting words in your mouth, where did I say "zero"? Also, why are you so stuck on the semantics of the word "disappear"? If someone said "I can't find my wallet, it must've disappeared", do you legit think they mean David Copperfield sending it to another dimension or something? What other word would you have me use? "Sinks", "evaporates", "craters", "drowns", "gets sucked into an everything bagel", "rectal implosion"? It disappears with the market. Having 30k in gains over two years compared to a looming recession the next, I think any word would fit.
