A Fool and His Money

 

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.” - Mahatma Gandhi


The duel presidency of Trump/Musk is making alarmingly unfounded claims that there is waste and fraud within the Social Security system.  They claim millions of people older than 100 (some as old as 200 or 300) are collecting Social Security benefits.  The fact is there are just 89,106 people aged 99 or over who are collecting benefits as of December, 2024.  This scare tactic is being used to set the stage for wealthy people like Trump and Musk to get their greedy hands on this money for their own self-interest.

The idea of privatizing Social Security (SS) has been around for years by conservatives in our financial markets, but these efforts have always been met with failure.  Mainly because Democrats have put up roadblocks to prevent this and also because most Social Security recipients do not want the government to alter what it’s been doing for nearly 90 years unless it’s to insure that benefits keep pace with inflation and that the fund doesn’t dry up.  


Musk has called it a great Ponzi scheme which only shows he knows not what a Ponzi scheme is.  What is a scheme on Trump and Musk’s part is to see this money flow into unstable markets leaving recipients uncertain of their financial future

Large random cuts to personnel or SS funds by Musk will inevitably “make it harder for people to access Social Security services, apply for benefits and resolve issues. If these cuts continue, long wait times and service disruptions are expected to grow.”  Depending on which report you use, anywhere between 20% and 40%  of Americans 65 and over received at least 90% of their total incomes from Social Security.  What percentage of their income is a combination of SS and other sources such as savings, with their SS benefit being the larger of all other sources, could have a significant economic impact that would likely lead to a recession

The image seen by millions of Elon Musk gleefully swinging a chainsaw in the air to represent his out-of-control federal employee cuts demonstrates that Trump has put a thoughtless incompetent in charge of his reform plans for the federal government.  But that really doesn’t worry the wanna be dictator because as he previously stated “I'm not a schmuck. Even if the world goes to hell in a handbasket, I won't lose a penny.”