George McGovern: "When people tell me they don't like liberals..."

[hfojvt]

10. not a good quote, sorry

First of all, many people do not like social security, especially now when so many people have been told over the last twenty years, again and again and again and again, that it is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme which is gonna go broke before they collect anything on it.

And especially now when the taxes/benefits ratio is not very good. When I ran the numbers myself, Social security paid less than a 3% return on the money that I and my employer put into it. And not only did it pay less than a 3% rate of return, unlike a system which allowed me to keep that money and invest it in t-bills, with social security, I don't get to keep the money. My spreadsheet showed that at a 3% rate of return, my taxes would accumulate a nest egg of $170,000 and 3% of that $170,000 was less than the benefits I was promised. (Hmm, now I notice that my math is not working, perhaps I should dig out the spreadsheet instead of working from memory) So, not only did it pay less than 3% but I will not get to keep the $170,000, or pass it on to my heirs.

Finally, no matter how satisfying it is, you do not make friends or influence people by telling them to shut up.