If you have decided to trust the system, you may find that it is not so trustworthy. Many of us over the 60 mile-marker, with Social Security on the horizon, are a bit concerned about how that's going to work out. If you have managed to make a decent paycheck and did all the paperwork right, and IF you have family support, you might do alright. If not, you may find that your future is not so secure, and that even if you DO have family support, chances are it may not be enough.
All too often, when looking forward to the golden years of retirement and the dream of having some free time and fun, Elders find their health declining. One of the goals of pharmaceutical companies is to get everyone on at least 5 drugs by the time they are 50 years old - "5 by 50". Many find themselves taking more drugs to eleviate the side affects of the original prescriptions.
If you become unable to live on your own or chronically ill and you haven't played the game so well, your only choice may be the nursing care system. Sometimes one gets lucky and finds a benevolent organization to care for them in their old age. Many are not so lucky.
Since covid came to town, the stakes have become higher. In most Western countries, the median age of 'covid death' has been 80+ years, and about 50% of those deaths occurred in care homes.
We find that our government and its supporting programs have not only been robbing the people, but that its policies and procedures are quite often injurious and even fatal to those who have entrusted themselves to their system.
Even when a family member advocates for their Elder, they may find that they cannot get cooperation, support, nor the information they need to be helpful. When seeking legal advice, the so-called justice system often turns a blind eye. What is left are lies and empty promises, and somehow there is no one who can help.
Once you've opted to put yourself into their system, it will cost you from $180 to over $1000 per day, depending on the state you reside in. Trying to determine on your own what Medicare and Medicaid will and won't do, and/or finding someone to help you comprehend the programs to determine the best outcome can be a full-time job, and can become a dead-end street. Their programs are designed to make sure you are completely destitute before they will lend a hand. Playing the game of how to protect your assets so your children might have an inheritance is a tricky business, and if you don't do it right, you might find you've lost it all and then some.
Meanwhile, the current working populace is taxed to help support those in decline, claiming that there is no funding, and so the debt-slave cycle goes on. Those who are doing their best to raise their families and keep the mortgage paid have little time or energy to help care for their aging parents and often, when they trust the system to care for them - as the system has promised to do - the results are heartbreaking and disastrous.
Pandemics are handy tools for population reduction and control, and serve especially to whittle down the elderly population, who in the eyes of certain elites have become useless citizens that can no longer contribute to the economy. Never mind that they have worked their whole life, contributing their hard-earned dollars to social security, pension plans, life insurance, savings accounts, etc. in order to provide for their old age, so as not to be a burden on their families and society, only to have it usurped/stolen by the programs that were supposed to protect it.
In this article - Abuse of the Social Security Trust Fund Began in the 1980s - Allen W. Smith describes how money has been stolen from Social Security.
"As soon as the surpluses, resulting from the 1983 payroll tax hike, first began to flow into the Treasury, politicians from both political parties began using the money like a giant slush fund."
According to Smith, certain members of Congress have tried to stop the process but apparently, Pres. Bush put the kibosh on that.
"Bush, the 'read-my-lips-no-new-taxes' president, did not need to raise taxes as long as he had access to the surplus Social Security revenue. During his four years in office, $211.7 billion in Social Security surplus revenue flowed into the U.S. Treasury. Every penny of it was spent for general government expenditures, and none of it was saved and invested for the payment of future Social Security benefits, as is commonly believed."
You can read more on the subject in this article - What Happened to the $2.6 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund? and here - The Great Social Security Robbery
All this does not paint a very promising picture about aging in this world. There are many such areas in our lives where we have trusted our so-called leadership, only to be duped and betrayed. Lessons learned?
For those of us staring SS in the face, here is our last chance to rectify the situation. Those who are on the younger side and think they still have plenty of time, consider how you will be able to help your aging parents when you might barely be making ends meet now.
WE are the Leaders, and the government and its associates must follow our lead. Shall we step up and create what we want, or continue to take what they give us? How long now before the only choices on their menu are - COMPLY or DIE ?