Latest / The Matt Walsh Show / This Is The Greatest Scam In American History. It's Time To End It.
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: When a PhD student was investigating the state gambling industry
- 0:04Speaker 1: in West Virginia, he made a pretty remarkable discovery. A
- 0:08Speaker 1: grand total of 43 million bets were placed by just 16,000
- 0:13Speaker 1: gamblers using a single casino app in a span of
- 0:17Speaker 1: one month. So a very small number of people are
- 0:19Speaker 1: responsible for a staggering amount of betting. And interestingly enough,
- 0:23Speaker 1: these bets spiked on specific days, every second, third, and
- 0:27Speaker 1: fourth Wednesday of the month. Now, why might that be?
- 0:31Speaker 1: You wouldn't expect Wednesdays to be a particularly big day
- 0:34Speaker 1: for betting or for anything else. But consistently, week after week,
- 0:38Speaker 1: that's what the researcher observed. And then after doing a
- 0:41Speaker 1: little digging, he realized what was going on. Wednesdays are
- 0:44Speaker 1: when Social Security payments go out. Retirees were getting checks
- 0:48Speaker 1: in the mail and immediately putting the money into slot
- 0:52Speaker 1: machines without even waiting a day. So they're just lighting
- 0:55Speaker 1: the money on fire, essentially, and This is money that
- 0:58Speaker 1: we desperately need as a country. Social Security is the
- 1:01Speaker 1: single biggest line item in the federal budget and a
- 1:04Speaker 1: major driver of our national debt. And we're distributing this
- 1:07Speaker 1: money to millions of people who, in many cases, clearly
- 1:11Speaker 1: don't need it. This is the kind of waste that,
- 1:14Speaker 1: in any other context, would justifiably attract a lot of attention.
- 1:17Speaker 1: When we learned that Somali daycare owners were buying luxury
- 1:20Speaker 1: SUVs with our tax money, the vice president launched a
- 1:23Speaker 1: fraud task force. The feds raided the leering centers. was
- 1:28Speaker 1: a national scandal, as well it should be. But the
- 1:32Speaker 1: news that Social Security checks are fueling the gambling industry
- 1:35Speaker 1: in states like West Virginia, one of the poorest states
- 1:37Speaker 1: in the country, has been totally ignored. No one's even
- 1:41Speaker 1: pretending to care about the implications. Now, if your response is, well,
- 1:45Speaker 1: these people paid into Social Security so they can spend
- 1:48Speaker 1: the money however they want, well, then you're missing two
- 1:51Speaker 1: very important points. First of all, no, these people did
- 1:56Speaker 1: not pay into anything. They paid a tax to the government,
- 2:01Speaker 1: which then immediately spent their money. The payouts they're receiving
- 2:05Speaker 1: in the form of regular checks are coming from working taxpayers,
- 2:08Speaker 1: many of whom need the money to survive, not to
- 2:11Speaker 1: blow it on gambling. And secondly, on a related note,
- 2:14Speaker 1: Social Security is unsustainable. The system depends on an ever-increasing
- 2:19Speaker 1: number of workers who have have to fund this Ponzi
- 2:22Speaker 1: scheme with their tax payments for an increasingly elderly population.
- 2:26Speaker 1: And yes, Social Security is quite literally a Ponzi scheme.
- 2:30Speaker 1: A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment plan where older
- 2:33Speaker 1: investors are paid out from money collected from newer or
- 2:38Speaker 1: more recent investors. And this is exactly how Social Security works.
- 2:45Speaker 1: But there's a problem. Well, many problems, but this is
- 2:48Speaker 1: a big one. Fertility rates in this country have plummeted.
- 2:51Speaker 1: We don't have enough workers paying taxes and therefore the
- 2:54Speaker 1: Social Security Trust Fund is set to run out in
- 2:57Speaker 1: the fourth quarter of 2032. And once the reserve is exhausted,
- 3:01Speaker 1: only around 78% of scheduled benefits would be provided. And
- 3:05Speaker 1: if the government tries to solve the problem by printing money,
- 3:08Speaker 1: it will cause inflation, which will ultimately cause Social Security
- 3:11Speaker 1: distributions to rise even further since the benefits are adjusted
- 3:14Speaker 1: based on the cost of living. In other words, whether
- 3:16Speaker 1: you want to cut Social Security benefits or not, something
- 3:20Speaker 1: has to give. At some point, sacrifices will have to
- 3:24Speaker 1: be made. There's no getting around it. The only question is,
- 3:28Speaker 1: who is making the sacrifice and in what form and when?
- 3:34Speaker 1: According to a recent survey from the Cato Institute that's
- 3:37Speaker 1: getting a lot of attention today, a large majority of
- 3:40Speaker 1: boomers have decided on their preferred solution. They know who
- 3:45Speaker 1: should make the sacrifice. And the answer is their children
- 3:49Speaker 1: and their grandchildren. Listen to this, quote, an overwhelming 89%
- 3:55Speaker 1: of Americans over the age of 65 said social security
- 3:59Speaker 1: benefits should be protected at current levels, even if it
- 4:01Speaker 1: means higher taxes on younger workers. And it's not only
- 4:05Speaker 1: Americans aged 65 plus who prefer the solution. Roughly 84%
- 4:08Speaker 1: of those aged 55 to 64 preferred higher taxes on
- 4:09Speaker 1: younger Americans, while 74% between the ages of 45 and
- 4:11Speaker 1: 54 agreed with it as well. In other words, The
- 4:20Speaker 1: closer Americans get to retirement, the more likely they are
- 4:23Speaker 1: to favor protecting today's benefits at the expense of younger workers,
- 4:27Speaker 1: who will end up paying higher taxes to keep it afloat.
- 4:32Speaker 1: So that's the plan. They're going to steal from young
- 4:36Speaker 1: families to pay the boomers who have dramatically more assets.
- 4:41Speaker 1: The average boomer net worth is more than 10 times
- 4:45Speaker 1: higher than the average net worth of somebody under the
- 4:48Speaker 1: age of 35. The median boomer household net worth is
- 4:51Speaker 1: roughly $ 430, 000, while the median net worth of entire households
- 4:54Speaker 1: under the age of 35 is around 39,000. Every single year,
- 5:00Speaker 1: individual Social Security recipients are receiving around $ 20, 000 on average,
- 5:05Speaker 1: which is more than half of the household net worth
- 5:08Speaker 1: for 35-year-olds. And this is a very important point, so
- 5:12Speaker 1: I'll repeat it. We are taking huge amounts of money
- 5:15Speaker 1: from young families and giving it to older people who,
- 5:17Speaker 1: on average, are 10 times wealthier. Now, of course, that's
- 5:23Speaker 1: an average. There are plenty of elderly grandmothers who are
- 5:25Speaker 1: poor or struggling, and there are some 35-year-olds who are wealthy,
- 5:29Speaker 1: but at a population level, the numbers are what they are.
- 5:34Speaker 1: To have an overwhelming majority of people in the older,
- 5:37Speaker 1: richer group calling for tax hikes on the younger, poorer
- 5:40Speaker 1: group is just despicable, frankly. It's pure selfishness. Young families
- 5:48Speaker 1: already have to deal with an economy where everything is
- 5:50Speaker 1: exponentially more expensive than it was for boomers at the
- 5:53Speaker 1: same age. Older people clamoring to raise taxes on the
- 5:57Speaker 1: young on top of it all is just perverse. It's
- 6:02Speaker 1: the exact opposite of how these things are supposed to work. Now, personally,
- 6:07Speaker 1: I would agree that to a plan to, say, phase
- 6:12Speaker 1: out Social Security over the next 25 years, even knowing
- 6:16Speaker 1: that if we put that plan in place right now,
- 6:17Speaker 1: it would mean that the system will end right at
- 6:21Speaker 1: the moment when I would start drawing a check. The
- 6:25Speaker 1: system is broken. It's not working. It's headed for the
- 6:28Speaker 1: edge of a very tall cliff. Something has to be
- 6:30Speaker 1: done for the sake of future generations. Again, sacrifices do
- 6:35Speaker 1: have to be made by someone at some point. There's
- 6:39Speaker 1: no way around it. And I would rather make the
- 6:41Speaker 1: sacrifice myself than force my kids to make it. I
- 6:44Speaker 1: would take the loss if it meant that my kids
- 6:47Speaker 1: and grandchildren aren't subjected to this scam for their entire lives.
- 6:50Speaker 1: I just can't for the life of me understand or
- 6:53Speaker 1: relate to the older people who don't feel that way
- 6:57Speaker 1: and wouldn't be willing to make the sacrifice for the
- 6:59Speaker 1: sake of their descendants. It's a totally foreign mentality to me.
- 7:02Speaker 1: I find it baffling. Setting my kids up for the
- 7:06Speaker 1: future is one of the only things I care about anymore.
- 7:10Speaker 1: I understand that for a lot of people, it can
- 7:12Speaker 1: be a legitimate challenge to save for retirement on top
- 7:15Speaker 1: of raising a family. But if the choice is between
- 7:17Speaker 1: securing your own retirement and ensuring that your children have
- 7:19Speaker 1: the chance to live in a stable country that isn't
- 7:22Speaker 1: owned by China, how is that a choice at all?
- 7:27Speaker 1: How would you decide when you've considered all your options
- 7:29Speaker 1: that the appropriate solution is to raise taxes even further
- 7:34Speaker 1: on young people, including your own kids? Wouldn't you do
- 7:37Speaker 1: everything in your power to make their lives easier if
- 7:40Speaker 1: you had the opportunity to do so? Or maybe I
- 7:41Speaker 1: should ask it this way. If you had to choose
- 7:45Speaker 1: between making your life harder or your children's lives harder,
- 7:52Speaker 1: is it not extremely easy to choose the former? Already,
- 7:57Speaker 1: Social Security by itself is an enormous burden on young
- 7:59Speaker 1: people to a degree that most people don't understand unless
- 8:04Speaker 1: they're in this position right now. So let's break this down. Okay.
- 8:07Speaker 1: If you're a young person making say 40 grand a year,
- 8:10Speaker 1: which is a little bit under the average for someone
- 8:12Speaker 1: who's 30 and not college educated. So a lot of
- 8:15Speaker 1: people that are around this age are in this boat.
- 8:18Speaker 1: So if this is what you're making, you currently pay
- 8:21Speaker 1: around 15.3% for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax or FICA.
- 8:27Speaker 1: And that breaks down to 12.4% for social security and 2.9%
- 8:29Speaker 1: for Medicare. So in total, you're out $ 6, 120 per year
- 8:38Speaker 1: for FICA taxes. The employee's personal contribution for Social Security
- 8:41Speaker 1: is half of the total. His employer, if he has one,
- 8:44Speaker 1: covers the rest. So that means every year, the employee
- 8:48Speaker 1: with a $ 40, 000 salary is paying $ 2, 480 per year towards
- 8:56Speaker 1: Social Security. That's basically a month's pay after taxes. It's
- 9:01Speaker 1: a huge amount of money. Okay, this is not a
- 9:05Speaker 1: small thing for a lot of young people. This is
- 9:07Speaker 1: a major financial hardship for young families. It's potentially the
- 9:12Speaker 1: difference between being able to afford a house or not,
- 9:16Speaker 1: the difference between being able to pay off your credit
- 9:19Speaker 1: card debt or not, the difference between getting a necessary
- 9:22Speaker 1: car repair or not. Social Security is an incredibly significant
- 9:28Speaker 1: financial burden for young working families. And all to prop
- 9:34Speaker 1: up a system that almost certainly won't be there, at
- 9:37Speaker 1: least in its current form, when they're older. And all
- 9:40Speaker 1: to send checks to retirees who, on average, are much
- 9:43Speaker 1: wealthier than they are and who, and this is important,
- 9:46Speaker 1: are receiving much, much more from Social Security than they, quote,
- 9:49Speaker 1: paid into it. On average, boomers will get paid more
- 9:53Speaker 1: than double what they put in, and that's including inflation
- 9:55Speaker 1: and interest. In raw dollars, they're getting four to seven
- 9:58Speaker 1: times what they put in. And the cost for young families, again,
- 10:03Speaker 1: is real ongoing financial distress. I can remember what that
- 10:09Speaker 1: was like personally. Social security is no skin off my
- 10:11Speaker 1: nose at this point in my life, but I remember
- 10:13Speaker 1: very well being at an income level where being able
- 10:15Speaker 1: to opt out would have been legitimately life-changing. And on
- 10:22Speaker 1: top of that, the Social Security tax caps out after
- 10:24Speaker 1: you've earned around $ 184, 000. So high earners, people making hundreds
- 10:29Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars a year or more, get to
- 10:32Speaker 1: dodge Social Security tax on a significant percentage of their income. Meanwhile,
- 10:37Speaker 1: we're making people earning 40 grand a year pay around
- 10:39Speaker 1: 6% from every paycheck. It's an insane system. It's not fair.
- 10:46Speaker 1: And the thing is, everybody knows it. When I made
- 10:49Speaker 1: this argument on X, as you'd expect, I got a
- 10:51Speaker 1: lot of replies like this one. This is from a
- 10:54Speaker 1: guy who, and I know it sounds cliche, but I'm
- 10:56Speaker 1: not making this up, has golf clubs in his profile
- 10:59Speaker 1: picture and the words real estate in his X handle.
- 11:03Speaker 1: Here's what he says. F you. They made us pay
- 11:06Speaker 1: into that system for this guarantee of retirement pay. I
- 11:09Speaker 1: would have rather invested the money in the stock market
- 11:12Speaker 1: and I'd be much better off. Well, there are a
- 11:16Speaker 1: few problems here. First of all, Nobody stopped you from
- 11:19Speaker 1: investing in the stock market. If you never did that
- 11:23Speaker 1: at any point in your life, that's on you. If
- 11:27Speaker 1: we're going to lecture younger people to pull themselves up
- 11:29Speaker 1: by their bootstraps and take responsibility for their own choices, fine.
- 11:35Speaker 1: But then the same tough love mentality should certainly be
- 11:37Speaker 1: applied to adults twice their age. So if you're sitting
- 11:42Speaker 1: here saying, oh, I didn't invest in the stock market
- 11:45Speaker 1: for my entire life. Well, you could have. Whose choice
- 11:49Speaker 1: was that? I mean, how's that any different from a
- 11:52Speaker 1: young person who's complaining that, oh, I have terrible student loans?
- 11:57Speaker 1: And most older people, especially if they're Republicans, will look
- 12:00Speaker 1: at the younger people and say, well, you know, sorry,
- 12:02Speaker 1: that was your choice. And I agree with them, by
- 12:04Speaker 1: the way. Like, you know, sorry, I know it's tough,
- 12:09Speaker 1: but you took that debt out and that's on you.
- 12:13Speaker 1: I mean, if we're willing to say that to young
- 12:15Speaker 1: people who made a choice when they were like 18,
- 12:19Speaker 1: to take on what would turn out to be a
- 12:23Speaker 1: really bad investment of a college education for most of them,
- 12:27Speaker 1: if we're willing to look at them and say, well, sorry,
- 12:31Speaker 1: tough luck, then what's wrong with saying that to someone
- 12:35Speaker 1: who's 67 years old? A grown ass adult who's saying, well,
- 12:40Speaker 1: but I never invested any money. Maybe you should have.
- 12:46Speaker 1: That's exactly what you would say to someone half your age.
- 12:49Speaker 1: And do say, what's the difference? Second, if you admit
- 12:54Speaker 1: that it's a crappy system, then you should want nothing
- 12:56Speaker 1: more than to fix it for the sake of your descendants.
- 13:00Speaker 1: But instead, it sounds like you want to get whatever
- 13:03Speaker 1: you can out of it and leave your grandchildren holding
- 13:05Speaker 1: the bag. And meanwhile, your generation spent decades voting exclusively
- 13:09Speaker 1: for politicians who would prop up the very, quote, system
- 13:12Speaker 1: that you're now complaining about. Again, where does personal responsibility
- 13:17Speaker 1: factor in here? There was also this response, which was
- 13:21Speaker 1: less vulgar, but still outlandish in its own way. And
- 13:23Speaker 1: I'm reading this because it's fairly representative of the kinds
- 13:26Speaker 1: of feedback you get anytime you try to talk about
- 13:28Speaker 1: solving the Social Security problem. Anytime you try to even
- 13:33Speaker 1: broach the subject, you get hissy fits, you get temper
- 13:36Speaker 1: tantrums from grown people. That's what you get. And that's
- 13:41Speaker 1: what this is. Usually I agree with you, and I'm
- 13:44Speaker 1: a staunch Republican, but if you take away my Social Security,
- 13:46Speaker 1: I'm a Democrat for the first time in my life.
- 13:49Speaker 1: I spent my entire life planning for retirement with Social Security,
- 13:52Speaker 1: a major part of it, and paid into the systems
- 13:54Speaker 1: as a young person so the older generation could have
- 13:56Speaker 1: some support. I'll make a deal with you, pay me
- 13:58Speaker 1: back every penny I put into it and every penny
- 14:00Speaker 1: my employers put into it on my behalf at 5% interest,
- 14:04Speaker 1: and you can take away the monthly checks. Okay, so
- 14:07Speaker 1: he's willing to make a deal as long as the
- 14:08Speaker 1: deal involves paying him all of his benefits. This is
- 14:11Speaker 1: the extent to which many older people are willing to
- 14:13Speaker 1: offer concessions of Social Security. They'll make a deal as
- 14:15Speaker 1: long as the deal involves giving them everything they want
- 14:17Speaker 1: up front and making sure they have to sacrifice not
- 14:21Speaker 1: one single dime. Even while 89% of them are saying, absolutely,
- 14:25Speaker 1: I think younger people should have to sacrifice their money.
- 14:30Speaker 1: It's just a morally abhorrent position. I'm sorry, it just is.
- 14:34Speaker 1: And if they don't get what they want, as you
- 14:35Speaker 1: just heard, they'll vote for communists who want to burn
- 14:38Speaker 1: down the country that their grandchildren will have to inherit?
- 14:42Speaker 1: Who are you punishing? You're going to punish your own descendants?
- 14:45Speaker 1: You're going to let terrorists who plan to open the
- 14:49Speaker 1: borders release all the criminals and destroy the United States
- 14:52Speaker 1: as we know it? Solely to protect your retirement? This
- 14:58Speaker 1: is childish and petulant and outrageously selfish. Demanding that the
- 15:02Speaker 1: government steal from young people the way it stole from you.
- 15:05Speaker 1: I mean, admitting that it's theft. Well, they took from me.
- 15:09Speaker 1: So they got to take from these kids. Threatening to
- 15:14Speaker 1: destroy everything if they don't do that. It's such an
- 15:16Speaker 1: abhorrent position that I'm surprised people aren't too embarrassed to
- 15:20Speaker 1: say it publicly. But this is a common sentiment. You know,
- 15:25Speaker 1: according to this guy, he spent his entire life planning
- 15:27Speaker 1: for retirement with Social Security as a major part of it.
- 15:29Speaker 1: And to be fair, you know, there are probably many
- 15:32Speaker 1: people in that boat. I get it. This is where
- 15:35Speaker 1: I go back to the younger people who have college debt. Yeah,
- 15:39Speaker 1: you're in a tough spot. I get it. Like that
- 15:40Speaker 1: was a mistake, though. You should not have planned your
- 15:43Speaker 1: whole retirement around a government program. Okay, that was a mistake.
- 15:47Speaker 1: You shouldn't have done that. It was a very foolish decision.
- 15:53Speaker 1: There was never any guarantee that Social Security would remain
- 15:55Speaker 1: solvent for any significant period of time. Everyone knew it
- 15:59Speaker 1: was a government program administered by incompetent government bureaucrats. And
- 16:04Speaker 1: no matter how much you paid into the system, you
- 16:06Speaker 1: were never allowed to log into any account and see
- 16:09Speaker 1: your balance in That should have been your first clue.
- 16:11Speaker 1: That was your big clue that, in fact, you had
- 16:14Speaker 1: not paid into anything. Your money was gone. And the
- 16:18Speaker 1: moment you realized that, you should have started planning for
- 16:21Speaker 1: your retirement on your own without depending in any way
- 16:23Speaker 1: on Social Security. And before you start ranting that it's unfair,
- 16:27Speaker 1: I agree. But this is exactly the position that young
- 16:30Speaker 1: people today are in. They are having their money taken
- 16:34Speaker 1: from them for a system that they know probably won't
- 16:38Speaker 1: be there for them. And that if you're an older person,
- 16:40Speaker 1: you also know, you damn well know that this probably
- 16:44Speaker 1: won't be here for the younger people. But you're not
- 16:47Speaker 1: going to be around when that happens. And so younger people,
- 16:51Speaker 1: they know that they have to plan for their retirement separately.
- 16:56Speaker 1: How can you expect young people to do that for
- 16:58Speaker 1: themselves while at the same time getting angry when younger
- 17:01Speaker 1: people ask you why you didn't do that for yourself?
- 17:03Speaker 1: And If you did do that for yourself, well, then again,
- 17:07Speaker 1: why should younger people be forced to finance a retirement
- 17:09Speaker 1: that you already financed? Now, yes, it's wrong for the
- 17:13Speaker 1: government to steal your money and give you an IOU
- 17:15Speaker 1: in return, which is basically what Social Security is, but
- 17:18Speaker 1: that's what happened. That's what happened. And if you pretended otherwise,
- 17:24Speaker 1: then you made a very serious mistake. The question is,
- 17:28Speaker 1: who should have to pay for that mistake? Should a
- 17:31Speaker 1: young worker making 40 grand a year have to pay
- 17:35Speaker 1: for it, for your mistake. And when you consider that collectively,
- 17:38Speaker 1: the older generation spent many decades voting exclusively for politicians
- 17:42Speaker 1: who would prop up this failing system, it becomes hard
- 17:46Speaker 1: to see them as a victim of it. You could
- 17:48Speaker 1: have fixed the problem, or at least tried to fix it,
- 17:52Speaker 1: but you didn't. You didn't even try. I mean, in fact,
- 17:55Speaker 1: like for decades, if any politician has even mentioned a
- 17:59Speaker 1: word about making any changes to the system, you screamed
- 18:03Speaker 1: at them and voted them out of office or threatened to.
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- 18:09Speaker 1: something expensive is going to break. You don't know what
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- 18:14Speaker 1: Maybe the water heater goes out. Maybe the furnace decides
- 18:17Speaker 1: that the coldest day of the year is the ideal
- 18:19Speaker 1: time to stop functioning. I think it's crucial to have
- 18:21Speaker 1: a plan for that before you're standing in your house
- 18:24Speaker 1: with no hot water, desperately calling repair companies and discovering
- 18:28Speaker 1: exactly how expensive home ownership can become. That's why homeowners
- 18:32Speaker 1: should know about HomeServe. HomeServe offers home protection plans for
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- 18:45Speaker 1: these kinds of breakdowns. Plans start at just $ 4. 99 a month.
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- 19:40Speaker 1: void in Florida. Listen up. There are enough people listening
- 19:43Speaker 1: to this show right now that if they don't vote,
- 19:45Speaker 1: it could swing key states in the 2026 election to
- 19:48Speaker 1: the Democrats and everyone listening knows every single ultra far
- 19:51Speaker 1: left Democrat socialist will be showing up to vote this fall.
- 19:56Speaker 1: Democrats are fired up and we can't let them win
- 19:58Speaker 1: because if we lose, they'll undo everything our movement has
- 20:01Speaker 1: fought for. I need you to vote early so that
- 20:03Speaker 1: you can bank your vote and fight back against the
- 20:06Speaker 1: left's turnout machine. If you live in the critical Senate
- 20:09Speaker 1: battleground states of Maine or Ohio, early voting is already
- 20:12Speaker 1: underway starting this week. Go to GOPvotes.org right now and
- 20:17Speaker 1: find out when you can vote. Making your voice heard
- 20:20Speaker 1: is easier than ever. You can get election reminders, look
- 20:22Speaker 1: up your polling location, and pick a date to vote early.
- 20:24Speaker 1: Go to GOPvotes.org today. Paid for by SLF PAC, not
- 20:28Speaker 1: authorized by any candidate or candidates committee. As a practical
- 20:33Speaker 1: political matter, I'll concede that it's extremely unlikely, verging on impossible,
- 20:39Speaker 1: that either party is ever going to reform Social Security,
- 20:41Speaker 1: much less end it, which is what needs to happen.
- 20:46Speaker 1: But it's not going to happen. I know that. This
- 20:48Speaker 1: is a political dead end for exactly the reason that
- 20:50Speaker 1: this guy states. There's a substantial number of people who
- 20:53Speaker 1: will vote against any political party that touches Social Security
- 20:56Speaker 1: in any way. We're not just talking about ending it.
- 21:00Speaker 1: Any attempt to reform it at all, to make it
- 21:03Speaker 1: potentially solvent or to make it so that it will
- 21:06Speaker 1: still be around maybe decades from now, any attempt to
- 21:09Speaker 1: do that is met with fury. Retirees become like BLM.
- 21:16Speaker 1: It's like, we're going to burn everything down. Even if
- 21:22Speaker 1: we're hurting our own kids, we're going to do it.
- 21:26Speaker 1: When George W. Bush tried to privatize the system, it
- 21:29Speaker 1: was a political disaster that was shot down within 60 days.
- 21:32Speaker 1: But his proposal was highly sensible and actually pretty moderate,
- 21:37Speaker 1: all things considered. He didn't want to shut down Social
- 21:40Speaker 1: Security altogether at all. What Bush wanted to do was
- 21:43Speaker 1: allow younger workers to divert 4% of their payroll taxes
- 21:48Speaker 1: from Social Security and into an individual personal account. that
- 21:52Speaker 1: they controlled. And the personal account would work like a 401k.
- 21:55Speaker 1: You could choose from a limited number of investments, mostly
- 21:57Speaker 1: tracking the total stock market. In exchange, the workers guaranteed
- 22:00Speaker 1: social security benefits, which are invested in treasury securities with
- 22:03Speaker 1: a much smaller return, would be reduced proportionally. And meanwhile,
- 22:06Speaker 1: the government would have to borrow around $ 2 trillion over
- 22:09Speaker 1: 10 years to make up for the shortfall of money
- 22:11Speaker 1: going into social security through normal contributions. That seemed shockingly
- 22:16Speaker 1: high to people at the time, but now we routinely
- 22:17Speaker 1: run deficits of that size every single year. Assuming the
- 22:21Speaker 1: stock market account grew at a rate of inflation, you know,
- 22:23Speaker 1: plus 3%, workers would benefit from this new system. And otherwise,
- 22:28Speaker 1: if the market's underperformed, it would cost them money in retirement.
- 22:31Speaker 1: So here's how he tried to sell the plan to
- 22:33Speaker 1: the public all the way back over 20 years ago. Listen.
- 22:37Speaker 1: The government has made a commitment, and you have.
- 22:40Speaker 2: Made your plans. These promises will be honored.
- 22:44Speaker 3: George Bush's plan strengthens Social Security. It guarantees everyone at
- 22:48Speaker 3: or near retirement every dollar of their benefits, no cuts
- 22:52Speaker 3: in Social Security. And the Bush plan gives younger workers
- 22:55Speaker 3: the choice to put a small part of their Social
- 22:58Speaker 3: Security in sound investments they control for higher returns.
- 23:02Speaker 2: This generation will save Social Security.
- 23:05Speaker 1: Now, that was right before Hurricane Katrina hit, which distracted
- 23:10Speaker 1: everyone and killed the proposal for good. But there was
- 23:13Speaker 1: no chance it was going to succeed anyway. The unions
- 23:15Speaker 1: and the AARP opposed it, mainly because their members didn't
- 23:19Speaker 1: understand how the stock market worked. And Bush's poll numbers
- 23:23Speaker 1: began to tank as Democrats convinced seniors that they lose
- 23:25Speaker 1: all their money. So the program never even made it
- 23:28Speaker 1: to a congressional vote. This is one of the reasons
- 23:31Speaker 1: everyone talks about, oh, we need real solutions. It's one
- 23:33Speaker 1: of the reasons why real solutions don't happen. Because on
- 23:35Speaker 1: the rare occasion where anyone in a position of power
- 23:38Speaker 1: actually proposes something that might be some kind of solution,
- 23:42Speaker 1: might have some kind of effect on a major problem,
- 23:47Speaker 1: they get screamed out of the room. That's what happens.
- 23:53Speaker 1: And Bush shifted his focus to Hurricane Katrina and no
- 23:57Speaker 1: one talked about the proposal ever again. And that's too
- 23:58Speaker 1: bad because it's very clear that workers would have much
- 24:01Speaker 1: more money for retirement today if this proposal had passed.
- 24:04Speaker 1: And crucially, That's money that they would actually own. Imagine
- 24:09Speaker 1: a worker in his 20s making 40 grand a year
- 24:11Speaker 1: who began participating in Bush's program and it became available
- 24:13Speaker 1: in 2005, if it ever did. The market crashed in
- 24:16Speaker 1: 2008 and then it recovered a few years later and
- 24:18Speaker 1: went on a 15-year bull run. With Social Security alone,
- 24:22Speaker 1: he'd get a check for around 2,500 a month when
- 24:24Speaker 1: he retires. Under Bush's system, his monthly Social Security check
- 24:27Speaker 1: would be reduced to around 2,000 a month, but he'd
- 24:30Speaker 1: have something like 300 grand in a personal retirement account
- 24:34Speaker 1: that he controls. That's a massively better position to be in.
- 24:38Speaker 1: It's a better system. We could have had that system.
- 24:43Speaker 1: But the mass of voters at the time, including especially
- 24:47Speaker 1: older people, retired people, didn't want it, wouldn't have it,
- 24:50Speaker 1: wouldn't even consider it. And if you were in that position,
- 24:54Speaker 1: he could safely withdraw 4% from their retirement account every year,
- 24:57Speaker 1: which more than makes up the difference in social security payments.
- 25:00Speaker 1: And the kicker is that when he dies, He can
- 25:02Speaker 1: pass that money to his family. It's generational wealth. On
- 25:05Speaker 1: the other hand, when you die, all of the money
- 25:08Speaker 1: you supposedly paid in to Social Security is gone forever.
- 25:12Speaker 1: Your spouse can collect your benefit until they die, but
- 25:14Speaker 1: after that, no one will ever get that money. It's
- 25:16Speaker 1: just gone. It's just gone because it's already gone because
- 25:20Speaker 1: you never actually paid into anything in the first place.
- 25:26Speaker 1: And again, Bush's plan was very modest. You could only
- 25:28Speaker 1: put 4% in a private account and only with certain restrictions.
- 25:31Speaker 1: If people were simply allowed to put all of their
- 25:33Speaker 1: Social Security tax, including employer match, into a retirement account,
- 25:37Speaker 1: which is obviously what the system should be, starting at
- 25:40Speaker 1: age 18 and retiring at 65, then they'd retire with
- 25:43Speaker 1: around $ 3 million based on historical market returns. Pretty much
- 25:47Speaker 1: everybody with a job would be a millionaire. It's astonishing
- 25:50Speaker 1: to think about, but it's true. These better ideas and
- 25:55Speaker 1: better systems were available and had been proposed before Bush
- 26:00Speaker 1: and since. But boomers nearly unanimously opposed all of them,
- 26:05Speaker 1: which is why, again, it's a little hard to stomach
- 26:07Speaker 1: the claim that they were scammed by the system and
- 26:10Speaker 1: now we have to keep it intact so they get
- 26:12Speaker 1: paid out because, you know, fair is fair. Yeah, they
- 26:14Speaker 1: were scammed, sure, but for the most part, they categorically
- 26:20Speaker 1: opposed any effort at all to fix the scam. Bush's
- 26:24Speaker 1: doomed Social Security reform was merely a last-ditch effort to
- 26:27Speaker 1: fix a problem that that boomers and their predecessors created
- 26:31Speaker 1: over a period of many years. This is something people
- 26:33Speaker 1: don't talk about anymore, but it's important to go into
- 26:35Speaker 1: some detail here so that you fully understand how older
- 26:38Speaker 1: generations have sabotaged the economic prospects of young people in
- 26:42Speaker 1: this country and why they did it. I know when
- 26:45Speaker 1: we talk about this, it's generational warfare. It's not generational warfare.
- 26:50Speaker 1: It's just history. This is what actually happened. And when
- 26:54Speaker 1: you see that, you'll see why it's necessary to take
- 26:56Speaker 1: decisive action to reverse the damage that they've done. But
- 27:00Speaker 1: we can't do that unless we're willing to talk about
- 27:02Speaker 1: the damage was. And I'm sorry if that's, you know,
- 27:04Speaker 1: if that's going to be offensive to some people, but
- 27:06Speaker 1: that's just that's just it. I'm sorry. Some really, really
- 27:08Speaker 1: terrible decisions were made. And in fact, these were decisions
- 27:12Speaker 1: that were made by, you know, not made by young
- 27:16Speaker 1: people today. They weren't around for it. And a lot
- 27:20Speaker 1: of young people are making their own bad decisions, but
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- 28:42Speaker 1: checks your qualifications. It's the one truly free market of ambition. Well,
- 28:46Speaker 1: at some point, that turns into an actual decision, and
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- 28:50Speaker 1: there's a version of that old plan still sitting in
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- 29:55Speaker 1: the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement,
- 29:57Speaker 1: LBJ's Great Society and, quote, War on Poverty, created massive
- 30:01Speaker 1: entitlement programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, which provided health care
- 30:05Speaker 1: to the elderly and the poor, respectively. The SNAP or
- 30:07Speaker 1: Food Stamp program was also created, along with the Department
- 30:09Speaker 1: of Housing and Urban Development, which funneled billions of dollars
- 30:12Speaker 1: towards public housing, rental assistance, vouchers, and so on. Then
- 30:16Speaker 1: there was the massive expansion of the public sector, where
- 30:18Speaker 1: the government went out of its way to create jobs
- 30:20Speaker 1: for Black workers, from the postal service to the DMV
- 30:23Speaker 1: to the transit system to those random unmarked government office
- 30:27Speaker 1: buildings where you wonder what anyone does there. The answer
- 30:30Speaker 1: is they don't do anything. All of this was on
- 30:32Speaker 1: top of Social Security, which was created decades earlier. Now,
- 30:35Speaker 1: none of this happened. We would not have any national
- 30:41Speaker 1: debt today. We'd have a massive government surplus. We would
- 30:44Speaker 1: have saved trillions of dollars every few years going back decades.
- 30:48Speaker 1: And on top of that, We wouldn't have had to
- 30:50Speaker 1: make any interest payments on our debt, which have compounded
- 30:53Speaker 1: for so long that these interest payments now exceed our
- 30:56Speaker 1: annual defense budget. What does this mean in practice? Well,
- 30:58Speaker 1: with a massive national surplus, we could have eliminated or
- 31:02Speaker 1: reduced income and payroll taxes for most Americans. We could
- 31:06Speaker 1: have done that. We could have no income tax. We
- 31:08Speaker 1: could have issued an annual dividend to everyone to make
- 31:11Speaker 1: it easier to buy a home or start a business.
- 31:12Speaker 1: We could have invested in our own country to an
- 31:14Speaker 1: unprecedented degree, but in the name of civil rights and
- 31:17Speaker 1: attempting to integrate black Americans with the rest of society,
- 31:21Speaker 1: And the interests of, you know, waging a quote unquote
- 31:23Speaker 1: war on poverty. LBJ and the Democrats created all of
- 31:27Speaker 1: these massive programs. And here's the key point. When the
- 31:30Speaker 1: opposition party, quote unquote, took over, instead of scaling these
- 31:35Speaker 1: programs back or finding some way to pay for them,
- 31:38Speaker 1: namely by raising taxes, if you're going to keep them
- 31:41Speaker 1: and pay for them, that's the only way to do it.
- 31:43Speaker 1: They kept everything intact. Ronald Reagan won landslide victories by
- 31:47Speaker 1: promising tax cuts without any meaningful reduction in government spending
- 31:50Speaker 1: on all of these welfare programs. He explicitly promised to
- 31:53Speaker 1: keep the social safety net for the elderly and the
- 31:56Speaker 1: boomers were thrilled. They got more money in their paychecks
- 31:59Speaker 1: and in the immediate aftermath, all of the major economic
- 32:01Speaker 1: indicators turned positive for a time. This was Reagan in 1985,
- 32:07Speaker 1: taking a very premature victory lap.
- 32:10Speaker 2: Listen. In 1981, Our critics charge that letting you keep
- 32:14Speaker 2: more of your earnings would trigger an inflationary explosion, send
- 32:19Speaker 2: interest rates soaring, and destroy our economy. Well, we cut
- 32:24Speaker 2: your tax rates anyway by nearly 25%. And what that
- 32:28Speaker 2: helped trigger was falling inflation, falling interest rates, and the
- 32:32Speaker 2: strongest economic expansion in 30 years.
- 32:36Speaker 1: Now, what Reagan doesn't mention here is that by 1985,
- 32:40Speaker 1: federal receipts had dropped to 17.2% of GDP compared to
- 32:44Speaker 1: 19% in 1981. So the government was taking in much
- 32:47Speaker 1: less money relative to the size of the economy. And meanwhile,
- 32:50Speaker 1: federal spending was going up, creating a very large deficit
- 32:53Speaker 1: of 5% of GDP. So our economy was expanding, yet
- 32:56Speaker 1: the federal government was still running a huge deficit. The
- 32:59Speaker 1: budget was not remotely balanced. And then just one year later,
- 33:02Speaker 1: Reagan poured gas on the fire. signing an amnesty bill
- 33:05Speaker 1: that granted a pathway to legal status for millions of
- 33:07Speaker 1: illegal aliens. He claimed it would ultimately reduce illegal migration,
- 33:11Speaker 1: but of course it accomplished the exact opposite result. Foreigners
- 33:14Speaker 1: realized the U.S. government would reward them for invading our country,
- 33:17Speaker 1: that we didn't have the willpower to deport them. So
- 33:20Speaker 1: in just a few years, low-income Mexicans took over large
- 33:23Speaker 1: portions of California, which as a result, will never again
- 33:26Speaker 1: elect a Republican like Ronald Reagan. In addition to permanently
- 33:30Speaker 1: changing the landscape of American politics, This demographic transformation put
- 33:36Speaker 1: millions more people on our welfare rolls and the deficit
- 33:39Speaker 1: continued to grow. Ronald Reagan would then become, of course,
- 33:43Speaker 1: deified by future generations of Republicans and disgust among conservatives
- 33:48Speaker 1: with the same reverence we have for George Washington, even
- 33:51Speaker 1: though the fact is he helped to bankrupt the country
- 33:53Speaker 1: and he kick-started the illegal immigration crisis that has destroyed
- 33:57Speaker 1: countless lives. As Christopher Caldwell writes in his book, The
- 34:01Speaker 1: Age of Entitlement, quote, from an actuarial and from a
- 34:04Speaker 1: human capital perspective, the quarter century after Ronald Reagan's election
- 34:07Speaker 1: should have been the easiest time to balance the budget
- 34:09Speaker 1: in the history of the public. The entirety of the
- 34:12Speaker 1: vast baby boom generation, making up 38% of the population,
- 34:15Speaker 1: was in its productive years. There were relatively few retirees
- 34:18Speaker 1: and dependent children to tend to. The country was, until
- 34:20Speaker 1: the Iraq War after 2003, at peace. It set the
- 34:23Speaker 1: rules for the global economy. But since baby boomers were
- 34:26Speaker 1: due to leave the workforce between 2010 and 2030... big
- 34:29Speaker 1: obligations for Social Security and Medicare loomed. These would go unmet.
- 34:34Speaker 1: Instead of meeting those obligations, the boomers and Reagan Republicans
- 34:37Speaker 1: chose the path of least resistance. Quote, the borrowing party
- 34:41Speaker 1: power of the baby boom generation was invested in avoiding
- 34:43Speaker 1: the choices that the confrontations of the 1960s had placed
- 34:46Speaker 1: before the country. We should understand the great society as
- 34:49Speaker 1: the institutional form into which the civil rights impulse hardened,
- 34:53Speaker 1: a transfer from whites to blacks of the resources necessary
- 34:55Speaker 1: to make desegregation viable. Desegregation was, The most massive undertaking
- 35:00Speaker 1: of any kind in the history of the United States,
- 35:01Speaker 1: like any massive undertaking, required endurance, patience, and prohibitive expense.
- 35:05Speaker 1: Almost everyone who did not benefit from it was going
- 35:08Speaker 1: to be made poor by it. The best evidence we
- 35:10Speaker 1: have is that it was too much for most Americans
- 35:13Speaker 1: from the beginning. The rhetoric that brought Reagan to landslides was,
- 35:16Speaker 1: among other things, a sign that Americans were unwilling to
- 35:19Speaker 1: bankroll with their taxes the civil rights and welfare revolution
- 35:23Speaker 1: of the 1960s and the social change it brought in
- 35:25Speaker 1: its train. So the boomers simply enacted tax cuts without
- 35:29Speaker 1: cutting entitlements and government spending. The tax cuts, Caldwell writes,
- 35:33Speaker 1: provided a golden parachute for the white middle class, allowing
- 35:36Speaker 1: it for one diluted generation to recreate with private resources
- 35:41Speaker 1: a Potemkin version of the old order. Now what? Well,
- 35:46Speaker 1: people who weren't even born when these decisions were being
- 35:48Speaker 1: made now have to pay for those decisions. This is
- 35:53Speaker 1: generational theft at scale. Quote, by 1989, the year Reagan
- 35:58Speaker 1: left office, according to an estimate by the economist Roy H.
- 36:01Speaker 1: Webb of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the government's
- 36:04Speaker 1: unfunded liabilities, mostly for Social Security, Medicare, and veterans benefits,
- 36:08Speaker 1: had reached $ 4 to $ 5 trillion and would rise exponentially
- 36:14Speaker 1: if nothing were done. Nothing was done. By the time
- 36:17Speaker 1: of the 2016 election, a calculation of those liabilities, similar
- 36:20Speaker 1: to Webb's, ran to at least $ 135 trillion. Ten years later,
- 36:27Speaker 1: some estimates peg those liabilities at over $ 200 trillion. And
- 36:33Speaker 1: while no politician wants to talk about a solution to
- 36:35Speaker 1: this problem because it would destroy their political future, I'm
- 36:40Speaker 1: not running for office. So here's the truth. A lot
- 36:45Speaker 1: of the online boomer hate is cliched and undeserved. Hating
- 36:49Speaker 1: or scapegoating an entire generation is a ridiculous practice and
- 36:52Speaker 1: certainly unhelpful. There are plenty of boomers who are great people.
- 36:55Speaker 1: My parents are boomers. They're great people. But that doesn't
- 36:57Speaker 1: change the fact that taking huge chunks out of the
- 37:00Speaker 1: paychecks of young working Americans in order to pay for
- 37:04Speaker 1: the retirements of older Americans who have a net worth
- 37:07Speaker 1: several times higher and who elected the politicians who bankrupted
- 37:12Speaker 1: the country, all to prop up a system that everyone
- 37:15Speaker 1: knows likely won't be there when those younger people are
- 37:18Speaker 1: retirement age themselves, is morally abhorrent. and economically insane. Everyone
- 37:25Speaker 1: knows it. But we're held hostage by elderly politicians who
- 37:28Speaker 1: refuse to surrender power and older voters who, as a group,
- 37:33Speaker 1: with exceptions, obviously, simply don't care enough about the financial
- 37:38Speaker 1: and cultural future their grandchildren will inherit. And here's the
- 37:41Speaker 1: other truth that I mentioned before, but I'm going to reiterate.
- 37:43Speaker 1: On average, boomers are getting paid more from Social Security
- 37:47Speaker 1: than they ever, quote, paid into it. A lot more. Like, double.
- 37:50Speaker 1: And that's counting inflation and interest. In particular, low earners
- 37:53Speaker 1: and couples with only one breadwinner receive benefits that are
- 37:56Speaker 1: many times greater than their contributions via taxes. In raw dollars,
- 38:00Speaker 1: they'll get, again, four to seven times what they paid in.
- 38:03Speaker 1: And if they're married with spouses who never worked a
- 38:06Speaker 1: day in their lives or paid any payroll taxes at all,
- 38:08Speaker 1: those spouses are getting up to 50% of the benefit
- 38:11Speaker 1: as well. And all the while, Younger workers who cannot
- 38:15Speaker 1: afford to keep this system afloat are being forced to
- 38:18Speaker 1: do so anyway, even as they struggle to afford what
- 38:20Speaker 1: should be the basic features of life in the most
- 38:22Speaker 1: powerful country in the world, features like a house and
- 38:24Speaker 1: a little bit of a property, you know, and a car.
- 38:28Speaker 1: So we have a problem, a massive problem. Something has
- 38:31Speaker 1: to be done. We have to start somewhere. And here's
- 38:35Speaker 1: one compromise that would at least stave off insolvency and
- 38:38Speaker 1: save billions. What if You get back what you paid in,
- 38:44Speaker 1: quote unquote, but no more. Young, struggling families will not
- 38:48Speaker 1: be forced to finance a 250% return on your, quote, investment.
- 38:55Speaker 1: And that seems reasonable, doesn't it? I mean, it doesn't
- 38:57Speaker 1: go nearly as far as I would like, but it's
- 39:00Speaker 1: a compromise, a fair compromise. It negates any claim that
- 39:03Speaker 1: you didn't get the money back that you, quote unquote,
- 39:05Speaker 1: paid in. And it will resolve the most pressing problem,
- 39:08Speaker 1: which is that we are running out of money. Not
- 39:10Speaker 1: just for Social Security, but for everything. And yet, I
- 39:15Speaker 1: suspect that this compromise will not be satisfactory. Why is that? Well,
- 39:21Speaker 1: because this debate actually has nothing to do with getting
- 39:24Speaker 1: back what you paid in. The real demand is for
- 39:28Speaker 1: a lot more than that. As that poll from Cato demonstrates,
- 39:31Speaker 1: the real demand for many older, on average wealthier Americans
- 39:35Speaker 1: is to extract as many resources as they can, even
- 39:39Speaker 1: if those resources come from young people who cannot afford
- 39:43Speaker 1: to pay anymore. What's so insidious about entitlements is that
- 39:48Speaker 1: no one ever under any circumstances, wants to give them up.
- 39:54Speaker 3: Ever.
- 39:55Speaker 1: And Social Security is no exception. But at the risk
- 39:59Speaker 1: of disappointing the folks who have made casinos very happy
- 40:02Speaker 1: on Wednesdays, the unavoidable fact is that sooner or later,
- 40:06Speaker 1: this particular entitlement will come to an end. Will. It
- 40:10Speaker 1: has to. The only choice now is whether it ends
- 40:13Speaker 1: in financial disaster for the entire country, or in a
- 40:17Speaker 1: deliberate phased wind down that gives your children the same
- 40:20Speaker 1: opportunity you had, which is the chance to save money,
- 40:23Speaker 1: buy a home, and start a family that one day
- 40:26Speaker 1: will do the honorable thing and pass its wealth down
- 40:30Speaker 1: to the next generation. That'll do it for the show today.
- 40:34Speaker 1: Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.
- 40:36Speaker 1: Have a great day. Every significant movement in history has
- 40:45Speaker 1: started with protesting.
- 40:46Speaker 3: You're a traitor!
- 40:47Speaker 1: Uncle Tom! This is our generation's civil rights!
- 40:49Speaker 3: I have no idea what the protest is about.
- 40:51Speaker 1: Bingo! Given the current climate, should a figure as polarizing
- 40:55Speaker 1: as Clay Saunders even be allowed on campus? Uh, can
- 40:58Speaker 1: you hear me okay? Saunders is a close personal friend
- 41:00Speaker 1: of Chancellor Freeman. This is a decision I cannot fight.
- 41:03Speaker 1: Islam will conquer the West. As-salamu alaykum. Are we paying attention?
- 41:12Speaker 1: They've taken over the building. They're downstairs and they've blocked
- 41:14Speaker 1: the doors. I seek forgiveness from Allah the Almighty. We
- 41:20Speaker 1: cannot run and hide. Mohammed is the messenger of God.
- 41:25Speaker 3: There is no God but Allah. What do you say
- 41:30Speaker 3: we turn those SOBs.
- 41:32Speaker 1: Into a fine red mist? As we move, one man
- 41:36Speaker 1: will cover while the other guys go.
- 41:38Speaker 3: They call that leap project.
- 41:39Speaker 1: Stretch them out and listen. You need a course in
- 41:43Speaker 1: safe weapons handling.