Democratic Debate

Fixed !

Thats a fantastic question. The answer is they didn't live nearly as long - in some part because they didn't have a socialist healthcare program that paid for their expensive retirement healthcare.

Maybe DonDiego knows someone who has benefited from such care.

This is kind of a crazy thought. If people are living longer, possibly people should continue working until they've saved enough money to retire without government help.

DonDiego supposes the normal lifespan, before the advent of the welfare state, was sufficient. People live too long nowadays, some of them way too long.
It's an unjustified interference with natural selection which has kept the world in balance for millennia.

Let us know when you retire and forfeit your socialist retirement benefits.

DD I think you have point that needs addressing. Why should older folks hog all the resources? I like the movie below as a fine example of how things should be handled.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film)

DonDiego retired years ago.

Had he been permitted to drop out of, f'rinstance, Medicare he would have done so. He was forced by Law to contribute to the system, and will now take advantage of every benefit available.

That i.such covetous behavior is the norm and that ii.politicians love to give stuff away so as to retain power, . . . combined with the inevitable fact that expenditures will eventually exceed revenues is the major reason to avoid such schemes.
Somebody has to pay later for the politicians' gain today. DonDiego may well receive Government benefits which exceed his contributions, if his first encounter with cancer is any indication. DonDiego thanks those still contributing.
The millennials will not be so lucky as DonDiego; actually it has nothing to do with luck - it was inevitable from the start that the program would exhaust its financial resources.

By the way DonDiego suggests the term "socialist" as applied by pjstroh is inappropriate. "Socialist" and "Capitalist" rightly apply to ownership of the means of economic production within a society.
The terms "Collectivism" and "Individualism" are more appropriate in describing involuntary Government schemes by which the "good" of all is placed above individual achievement and responsibility. (n.b. DonDiego has no objection to similar voluntary programs; it is Government coercion to which DonDiego objects. Oh, and the inevitable BIG Government inefficiency too.)

Freeze taxes, cut spending by 10% immediately, freeze future spending. I'll take my benefits frozen in time.

As of Dec. 1st I will be fully and completely retired with no retained company presence. I have been partially retired for five years and mostly retired for two. I have paid the maximum into social security each year since 1987. I do not and will not receive any SS benefits. I am self insured and only carry a private catastrophe policy.
ANYONE can survive without a welfare state.

If CowboyKell is rejecting Social Security benefits on principle, DonDiego salutes him.
On the other hand, if the benefits are available Cowboy Kell might consider accepting them and then giving them to charities that do good works. It would be more beneficial than letting the Government hold onto them, . . . or, since there is no "SS lock box" and monies are fungible, waste them on inefficient-or-ineffective-or-inappropriate Government programs.