Elon Musk’s Ponzi scheme
“Social Security,” said Elon Musk, the man who makes $340 a second, to Joe Rogan, “is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” He goes on to regurgitate the same old tired Republican lie that the future burden of Social Security is unsustainable because something something too many babies and people living too damned long. Et cetera.
Here’s the real truth. For 85 years Social Security has been just fine. It will continue to be just fine if they raise the cap. Right now Elon Musk pays the same in Social Security tax as a moderately successful plumber. That’s because it’s capped at an annual salary of $176,000, meaning it stops increasing as salaries go up. This is done so rich people can buy extra sun hats for their race horses.
All that needs to happen to save Social Security is to raise the cap a little. What should happen, in fact, is there should be no cap. In fact, the richer you are, the GREATER percentage of Social Security you should pay. That would be just fine with me and most Americans.
Now, there are two possibilities to what Musk told Rogan. Either he is lying or he is stupid. Either one is easy to believe. Both are possible. If anyone still thinks Musk is a “genius” you need to, as the saying goes, have your head examined. Musk is an idiot. He talks like an idiot. He is also a liar. So yes, it’s both.
It’s funny, when you think about it. Funny in a sick sort of way. While this smug gazillionaire, who in the time it takes him to lecture us on social security, makes more money than the average American retiree makes in an entire year, owes much of his wealth to government subsidies. He wants to be the world’s first trillionaire, and he’ll get there faster if he takes away your Social Security.
I, for one, refuse to be lectured by a man who makes one million, two hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars every hour, about how my retirement benefit needs to be reduced. Like I said, Social Security is just fine, and it will remain just fine if we raise the cap. We don’t need this trillionaire wannabe to talk down to us. The solution is simple, and Republicans know it, and this unelected foreign prick probably knows it too.
What’s amazing is, these kinds of questions are never asked about defense spending. America has the largest defense budget in the world, almost a trillion dollars. Soon it will exceed even that, with no end in sight. America’s future burden from defense spending is unsustainable without drastic cuts to other programs.
The United States spends more on defense than the next 9 countries combined. If a sincere effort was made to cut excesses from defense spending, many of America’s fiscal problems could be solved in a stroke. Republicans never talk about that because it means going after the money of their rich friends who own aerospace companies and the like. It’s easier for them to go after your grandma’s cookie jar money.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.