Summary

Elon Musk amplified Senator Mike Lee’s calls to overhaul Social Security, labeling it a “nightmare.”

Lee, known for advocating the elimination of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, criticized the program as deceptive and mismanaged.

Musk, co-chair of Trump’s advisory commission on cutting federal spending, faces accusations of aligning with GOP efforts to privatize or gut Social Security.

Advocacy groups denounce these moves as a threat to seniors and disabled Americans, warning that Republicans aim to shift earned benefits to Wall Street, despite broad public opposition to cuts or privatization.

  • chingadera
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    1195 months ago

    Can we normalize saying “world’s greediest man” instead of “world’s richest man?”

  • @[email protected]
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    845 months ago

    It flabbergasts me that Musk, an unelected billionaire, has any input at all in policy decisions.

    • @[email protected]
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      335 months ago

      Just another day in the post-truth age. This and much more awaits in a society that allows a handful of algorithms unfettered editorial control over what people think.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 months ago

        It’s just another day in the plutocracy that has probably run things the entire lifetime of “democracy”.

        The only difference is with MAGA the plutocracy no longer need to hide behind lobbyists, campaign financing, super PAC’s, nepotism/cronyism, quid pro quo, virtue signaling about national security, etc to engage in corruption, loot the public coffers, and divert trillions to their own companies or cronies in the MIC or whatever.

        The conservative propaganda machine has now successfully groomed and cultivated a mentally ill cult, who will let their king insert a microchip into their brains without a second thought… Hell, they’ll probably hand over their life savings for the privilege.

    • @[email protected]
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      65 months ago

      Plenty of unelected people have a massive say in policy. We wouldn’t get anything done if every bureaucrat had to be elected.

      This specific unelected soon-to-be bureaucrat is fucking towel though.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 months ago

        This specific unelected soon-to-be bureaucrat is fucking towel though.

        Hey now, that’s not very fair, towels are at least useful and pretty good at wiping up shit. Phony Stark only ever makes messes and then wallows in the shit.

      • @[email protected]
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        15 months ago

        Yeah, but Musk doesn’t even have any related talent or work experience. He’s just a rich greedy POS.

    • @[email protected]
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      15 months ago

      Sure he is unelected, but he paid Trump 75 billion

      Doesn’t that entitle him to bankrupt your parents. They can move in with you.

      N’est pas?

      /s

  • TimeSquirrel
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    675 months ago

    So, they plan on stealing the money I’ve put into it over my 25 year working career?

    I know that’s not exactly how it works, but yeah it feels like it’s theft with extra steps if I never see benefits but had paid into it.

    • @[email protected]
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      -435 months ago

      Hate to break it to you but that’s not how social security works. The money you pay in now is used to pay for the benefits of the currently retired. It is not an investment fund that you are paying into with a guarantee of payments when you retire.

      • LeadersAtWork
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        5 months ago

        It is not an investment fund…with a guarantee of payments when you retire.

        The three stool legs of American retirement. 401k, pensions, Social fucking security. There IS an expectation and that is you paying into it with that expectation.

        • @[email protected]
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          -65 months ago

          401 LOL

          pensions fucking ROFL

          ss… yea, WAS an expectation. the 1% want all that money for themselves, and guess what, they’ll fucking get it

          • LeadersAtWork
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            205 months ago

            They did exist, and still do in lesser ways. You SHOULD be angry about it. Stop rolling over.

            • @[email protected]
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              05 months ago

              Bruh whats the point? Have you ever changed anything?

              Nothing is going to change until billionaires and fascists are scared to walk the streets. Admittedly we had one person that succeeded in actually making the world a better place, one who died trying, and im pretty sure the other guy got arrested. He’s not rolling over, he’s a realist.

              The older generation fucked us and continues to fuck us. They literally will not stop until they all die. I know theres some good people in there, but one bad apple spoils the bunch. And the bunch is well over half spoiled. If they wanted ss, they shouldve made the world a more livable place where people would want to have kids and thereby stabilize ss. They chose to maximize their profits at the expense of THE ENTIRE FUCKING PLANET.

              No sympathy, fuck them all. Fuck the red sea I live in too. Someone should glass us.

          • @[email protected]
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            65 months ago

            For as much as you seem to be opposed to being fucked over by your attitude, you sure seem to be bending over with your words

      • @[email protected]
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        75 months ago

        Doesn’t matter if it “works that way” if literally everyone thinks of it that way and isn’t currently storming the capitol because of that understanding.

        • @[email protected]
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          05 months ago

          Ah yes, lets just ignore reality. The same people who want to benefit from ss are the people who fucked it by making it impossible for the younger generation to grow their wealth, or want to even bring a younger generation into the world.

          Yeah, they should be storming the capitol for that and many other reasons. But that is how it works, and they wont. Amaricans are too pussy to actually evoke change, outside of three people so far. And despite the fact that two of them were right wing nutjobs, they still attempted to do better for the world than 99.999% of the rest of the country.

      • HubertManne
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        35 months ago

        yeah more than likely they will use that as the impetus and try to do like bush junior changing it into a kind of 401k

  • @[email protected]
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    515 months ago

    Any billionaire should be open to a robin hood law, if you’re going to violate the social contract so much that it’s obliterated and you’re no longer subject to law or criminal charges then you should also be exempt from its protections.

    • @[email protected]
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      125 months ago

      Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

      -Frank Wilhoit

    • @[email protected]
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      25 months ago

      They certainly should not get to dictate anything about us. This jagoff does not even pay into it, so he can fuck RIGHT OFF.

    • @[email protected]
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      325 months ago

      Man, I don’t advocate violence (except when necessary), but I’m struggling to feel bad about this. I’ve had almost all major and many minor health insurance providers and UHC was above and beyond the worst, hands down, full stop. Just garbage.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 months ago

        Same. I’ve been saying for a while that I’m surprised this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often. All it takes is one person deciding that their problems are a specific company’s fault. One can imagine all sorts of reasons for that conclusion to be drawn. Tons of shootings happen for way more trivial reasons too.

      • @[email protected]
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        45 months ago

        Why struggle? Just don’t feel bad. You don’t owe them anything. Hell, advocate for this becoming a national holiday. “The day someone actually did something impactful”

      • @[email protected]
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        25 months ago

        I just saw a headline pushed at me while walking around and it was effectively that most Americans don’t feel that bad about the guy…

    • @[email protected]
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      75 months ago

      I’m so happy that these fuckers will be looking behind their back constantly now. They know what they did to us, they know that their greed has a death toll.

  • @[email protected]
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    315 months ago

    Leave my social security alone, you prick. We pay into it, it is not an entitlement. If it is becoming unsustainable, then remove the cap.

    These guys hope to make the US become a third world country. They have no idea how bad it can become if there is widespread poverty in America.

    • @[email protected]
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      85 months ago

      We pay into it, it is not an entitlement.

      It is an entitlement because you pay for it.

      The opposite would be means-tested, where you would have to qualify.

  • Pantsofmagic
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    205 months ago

    One of the first thoughts I had with the election result was “welp, there goes my retirement”. None of this surprises me even a little

  • @[email protected]
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    205 months ago

    I’ll never understand why billionaires hate OASDI…

    The cap means no one pays more than 10.5k this year. That isn’t even fucking pocket change to Musk or any billionaire.

      • Zier
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        155 months ago

        They never had any. They also never had any value to the Human race.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      The most powerful people in the US acquired their power from privatizing Social Security in the form of retirement accounts.

      The largest retirement account management companies are Vanguard, Blackrock, and State Street. They consolidate all of the power of the shares from all of the retirement accounts they manage, to give them board control of 89% of the S&P 500.

      Those faceless firms are actually the ones who control the hardship index (price of food, housing, clothing, other essentials) that earned Trump so many “bad economy” votes.

    • @[email protected]
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      105 months ago

      People like him have all the money they could ever need. This is about control, and punishing people they don’t like (and those that don’t fall in line and lick the boot).

    • BarqsHasBite
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      65 months ago

      They think the free market solves all problems. Anything the government does is bad and evil by definition.

  • @[email protected]
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    195 months ago

    What do they think is going to happen to all those old people who survive on just Social Security? Or disabled people? What do they think will be the attitude of a population that has even less financial and health security?

    They are actively trying to create a world that will become much more dangerous for themselves.

    • @[email protected]
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      195 months ago

      The classic move is just to fuck over the NEXT batch, so the people drawing from it now are happy to vote Republican. “Fuck you, got mine” at its finest.

      • @[email protected]
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        195 months ago

        My stepmother years ago while sitting in front of her child: “I don’t really care about climate change, I’ll be dead by then!”

    • @[email protected]
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      85 months ago

      Easy, they’ll just dump us in prisons where we’ll be expected to pay for the cost of our involuntary stay. If I lose ssdi I become homeless, which is becoming increasingly illegal

    • @[email protected]
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      45 months ago

      That’s the slick part: they don’t expect that you will have any power to ever vote them out of office again so they can do whatever they want! It’s that sort of brilliant radical thinking that has energized American voters to put these fascists back in power after their practice run!

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      Musk probably thinks these people will be instructed in how its the fault of the trans, the liberals, the POC, and the immigrant caravans that are pouring across the border every day.

      He’s probably not wrong. These people will be destitute, and vote for the qons even harder, because what have the Democrats ever done for the working class? 🙄

  • sp3ctr4l
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    155 months ago

    Well, seeing as SSDI is my only source of income, guess I’ll die homeless if that gets cut off.

    Cool!

    • @[email protected]
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      155 months ago

      Being homeless is also not an option in conservative hell. You’ll need to report to your local jail, er slave cen, er employment center!

      • sp3ctr4l
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        5 months ago

        So anyway, anyone in a more sane country wanna do a sham marriage?

        35 / M / Former DB Admin, Software Engineer

        Been told I have a lovely singing voice.

        • @[email protected]
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          5 months ago

          Doesn’t have to be a sham, nothing sexier than someone who gets banned from World on this happy day. ;)

          • sp3ctr4l
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            15 months ago

            ASL, lol?

            I am mostly not kidding.

            Though I am in good spirits, I spent most of 2023 and a bit of 2024 homeless… got held hostage and assaulted for a week in my own apartment, was severely injured, lost my job, couldn’t pay rent, got evicted, lost everything I’d ever owned, family and ‘friends’ either didn’t care or said I was crazy and none of that happened.

            My life objectively sucks, if my SSDI gets cut to nothing, I will likely literally die horribly.

            If anybody needs a stay at home tech dork, who can maybe hopefully someday do enough of my own self directed physical therapy (lol can’t afford actual PT), may also be useful as a light handyman…

            I also have a steam library I can family share… I dunno.

            • @[email protected]
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              5 months ago

              30s/FtM/Minnesota

              I am mostly kidding though, unfortunately. I do have an easy path to EU citizenship open to me, but actually moving is expensive and I work retail. I’m absolutely open to the idea that, at my age, standards are low enough and I might just click with someone and know that I want to spend the foreseeable future with them, but I’m not actually looking to defraud anyone, lol.

  • @[email protected]
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    145 months ago

    Good job, assholes. You were worried about egg prices and obsessed with trans. And now this.

  • Ellen_musk_ox
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    115 months ago

    Conservatives have been wanting and trying to dismantle the SS since its inception.

    I’m not that concerned just yet. There’s a reason it’s called the third rail of politics.

    If I had to bet on the future outcome, they’ll raise the contribution cap to around $300k, maybe cut benefits a bit, fixing the solvency problem for at least a generation or two.

    I’d also bet on an immigration deal in a future administration. Getting more workers/contributors into the system.

    It honestly wouldn’t shock me if the Trump admin pivoted to amnesty just like Reagan. He’s a lame duck from day one. He’s not beholden to anything from the campaign trail. If he’s gotta choose the adoration of his voter base vs the donor base, he’ll choose the wealthy. He hates being excluded from the elites. You can’t buy class. But you can be invited to their parties, their clubs, their scene. His working class base has nothing left to offer him.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 months ago

      What I don’t get is why there is a cutoff such that the “contribution” that jerkoffs like Musk put in is basically negligible.

      If anyone should pay and pay and pay some more, it’s people like Musk. I like Bernie’s idea of 100% tax above 999 million. Being a billionaire should not even be a thing.