Lloyd Blankfein on Social Security

[geardaddy]

He says we can't afford it. I say we can't afford not to have it.

[ViseGrip]

1. These are Hillary's friends! This is some very scary shit. Obama put it on the table, and now dems

seem to want to keep it there to please the banksters.

[7wo7rees]

4. +1000 k and r's if I could!!! nt

[hifiguy]

14. Owners, not just friends.

[INdemo]

31. .....and Obama promised he would not allow Medicare and Social Security to be part

of Budget negotiations....The" Change we could all believe in"..

[floriduck]

35. Exactly. And her supporters act like it's just fine.

This man should have been indicted for fraud. So Obama picks a DOJ chief who buys into the Banks are Good mentality. Then Obama picks the NY Fed chairman to run the US Treasury. And none of it is progressive. It is destructive and they needed to be run out on a rail.

This is Third Way politics at its absolute worst. Hillary is a natural fit to ke Obama's bank policies right where they are or worse.

[PatrickforO]

2. Can't afford it????

Tell you what, Lloyd. Let's strip you of your giant mansions, your offshore wealth - everything and make you like everyone else. Struggling in a capitalist utopia and getting nickel and dimed at every turn by guys like you.

OK, now, you've paid in full boat to Social Security for over 40 years, and some bullshit greedhead (like you) says we can't afford it???

Fuck you, Lloyd. Why don't we take everything you have and then put your Social Security at risk? Maybe you'll bleat a different tune.

[7wo7rees]

3. Beautiful, thks Blankfein, Goldman Sachs.

I think I will just leave it there.

[randys1]

5. I get the connection, and yes this man and those like him are horrid and vile creatures

I dont know how we created people this greedy.

[geardaddy]

9. I don't understand why people with so much

have to keep people with so little getting what they've worked for.

SMH

[randys1]

13. The mindset is the money, the resources belongs to them, and they want to decide

what we get, if anything.

It is why they hate unions, the very idea the employee could dictate what the owner would have to pay, why the nerve.

[hifiguy]

15. Every dime they see in the hands of someone not of their class

is a dime they think belongs to THEM as a matter of the Divine Right of the Wealthy. They are parasites and something needs to be done about them. Only one man is telling that vital truth.

[JPnoodleman]

44. That becomes the point of money, is power... power is only good if you can use it...

My stint working at a Wal-Mart taught me a lot about this.

Having wealth is not a reward in it of itself to some people. The purpose of wealth is its exclusivity, and the power to use it against others. What good is being a billionaire if you cannot for example take advantage of your staff? What good is wealth without power?

Nobody is opposed to wealth, or being wealthy. The point is that the person in question acts with wickedness, malice, and evil, that is too be judged.

[hifiguy]

45. And the corporate system as it has developed in this nation

rewards, in fact practically requires, a sociopathic/psychopathic personality to succeed at the highest levels. There are exceptions, but they are just that.

[JPnoodleman]

48. I liken our Economy, and economics to games of Dungeons and Dragons...

The economy is a game, with rules written by human beings. Players make their character and play within the mechanics of the game.

If the game is a wonderfully fun, but also nightmarishly broken exploitable mess, (3.x or 3.5e) than you will get unintended results of the players are less than admirable people.

Our system is a broken mess with the label "Capitalism," slapped upon it. Its so broken that those now benefiting from it are a veritable cancer on the game. From a Dungeon Masters perspective, the Game is effectively both unplayable and the "Game World," is essentially smashed into nonsense. If the game can be cheated, the rules abused, and the whole world ripped apart by a player or two carefully manipulating the legions of moving parts that are "The Rules," than you have a badly designed game.

Our "game," rewards cheating, and bad playing. We need to revise the rule book, re-balance the playable classes, and fix the broken systems or at least try to.

[hifiguy]

49. Indeed. Currently the only winners are

criminals, suckup shitweasels, swindlers, willing tools of the tenth-percenters and winners of the Lucky Sperm Club.

I suppose there are still the odd guys and gals out there who hit the jackpot with great ideas or bits of technology that become popular; there will always be a few who invent a better mousetrap, but the rest of the game is totally rigged for the 1%.

[geardaddy]

19. You are so correct.

I understand their mentality intellectually, just not emotionally.

[JPnoodleman]

50. Well if you blame everything on "The Free Market," then your not to blame...

Generally people are hesitant to write themselves as the villain in their own life stories. I am sure Lord Moneybags believes himself to be the John Galt visionary uber-mensch.

Plus there is an external Demon to blame it on. They didn't cast the baby into the Moloch, the Moloch made them do it! The blame for bad action is placed on "Market forces!" not on his desire for money.

[geardaddy]

62. You have great observations.

Thanks for sharing them.

[JPnoodleman]

41. At a certain point wealth gathering becomes mental illness...

Once you can buy a private island for yourself and the next 20 descendants of your bloodline, you've probably gathered more wealth then is rational or even sane to get.

At a certain point we have to recognize some people are pathological and driven to those sorts of careers.

[A HERETIC I AM]

51. "Wealth accusation"??

Was that an auto correct?

Do you mean "Wealth accumulation"?

[JPnoodleman]

52. Twas' the blasted autocorrect. THE COMPUTER GODS SMITE ME THIS DAY! /nt

[geardaddy]

61. That makes complete sense

Mental illness

[guillaumeb]

6. 30 years of benefits after a 25 year career?

How many working class people work 25 years and retire? The minimum retirement age is 62. So Blankfein feels that the average worker starts working at 37, works 25 years and retires at 62?

This coming from one of the biggest thieves in history.

[kristopher]

32. And then we all live to be 92-95.

[cali]

7. Deeply repulsive. Good friend of Hillary's and huge donor

Excellent reason not to trust her on social security

[Sherman A1]

8. +1000

Well said!

[wildbilln864]

46. exactly! thank you. n/t

[davekriss]

10. How f*cking convenient!

The 2 George Bush tax cuts for the affluent and wealthy reduced tax receipts over 10 years, all of which becoming federal debt, by the same amount as the gap in Social Security is expected to amount to over 75 years. And now those who extraordinarily benefited from these Rethug policies tell us we can't afford it? F*ck them! Break out the tar, feathers, and pitchforks!!

[Carolina]

54. No, the guillotines

[Babel_17]

11. More like "Lord" Blankfein

"Harumph, harumph, Social Security is for providing sustenance to an army of anarchists! Harumph, harumph."

[geardaddy]

12. I like it

Little Lord Blankfein

[TBF]

16. That F****er is a billionaire -

he could fund it by himself. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-17/blankfein-becomes-billionaire-riding-goldman-s-shares-to-riches

[Cali_Democrat]

17. OK...that does it! I'm not going to vote for Lloyd Blankfein for president.

Thanks for the information.

[geardaddy]

20. I don't blame you.

I'm posting because I'm disgusted with people of his ilk. I'll vote for who the Democratic nominee is.

[leanforward]

24. Dittto

[Politicalboi]

28. You don't think you're voting for him

But in reality you could just be.

[CharlotteVale]

18. We can't afford a president he gives $$$$$$$$$ to.

[hifiguy]

21. "Money doesn't talk, it swears."

- Bob Dylan

[maxsolomon]

26. What if he donates to Sanders after he gets the nomination?

just to hedge his bets, or if he thinks Trump/Cruz/Rubio is a loon? There's no law to stop it.

Where will you go then? Will you stay home?

So tired of the hyperbole.

[CharlotteVale]

27. Bernie doesn't take bank/corporate cash. So sorry to burst your little

hypothetical bubble.

[INdemo]

30. The Sanders campaign would send him his check back.

Bernie Sanders is going to win by the 10-20-25 -30 dollar donations and win big....

[azmom]

33. Sanders would never take money

From this scumbag. Never.

[Maedhros]

38. There are those Democrats who are concerned with Big Money controlling our politics,

and then there is you.

[maxsolomon]

56. good lord. the hyperbole is so thick around here

BIG MONEY HAS ALWAYS CONTROLLED OUR POLITICS.

Sanders would be a nice change, but at the end of 8 years, you might experience some disappointment.

[Maedhros]

59. Defeatist nonsense.

/bye.

[leanforward]

22. We can not afford not to.

Two notes. One, there should not be an income limit on social security contributions. And two, do you think he's trying to influence anyone? This thread solidifies my thinking away from HRC. When the middle class has received reduced wages, likewise there is reduction in cash flow to the trust fund. No limit on income contribution would start to reverse diminished contributions for the past 20-30 years.

[noiretextatique]

23. this snake is as arrogant as they come

there are far too many entitlements for rich, arrogant fucks like this one. social security is not one of them.

[Octafish]

25. How does he know if we don't try?

[INdemo]

29. Why isnt it ever mentioned that the US Government owes the Social Security fund

2.7 Trillion Dollars. I think Bernie Sanders mentioned this. A huge amount of this Congresssional debt was taken on when
Bill Clinton and House Speaker Gingrich decided to rob the fund of a huge amount to help balance the budget and add to the already large debt..No interest has ever been paid. This guy Lloyd Blankfein is just another Koch Brothers team member that wants to destroy Soc. Security.

Why is it so difficult for people to understand that Social Security is a self funded annuity (type) and not a part of the Federal Budget. 2.7 Trillion dollars...
Bernie Sanders wants to raise the amount of earning for which Social Security tax is deducted from.
With that and being paid the 2.7 Trillion Social Security would be in excellent.

what this dumb ass fails to understand is that Social Security is a fund that both the employer and employee pay into their individual fund. Goldman Sachs just wants to get tier hands on these funds to gamble with.


http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2014/08/23/has-social-securitys-trust-fund-been-robbed.aspx

[Nye Bevan]

34. Calling Social Security "not part of the Federal budget" is really just an accounting nicety.

The excess of Social Security tax receipts over Social Security benefits paid out is immediately spent on other stuff from the general budget as it comes in, and the government puts IOUs in the "Trust Fund" to account for this. Later on, when Social Security is paying more out in benefits than it is receiving in taxes, and the IOUs have to be repaid with real money, that money has to come from somewhere, whether it is taxes, borrowing, or printing money. So the "Trust Fund" does not represent a real stash of money, it is really just a number that someone calculates.

Eliminating the "Trust Fund" concept and just having Social Security taxes go into the general budget and have benefits paid from the general budget would not change the actual economics of the system in the slightest.

[INdemo]

36. It is not part of the Federal Budget.

Social Security is self funded by Employee and Employer contributions and should not be apart of the expenditure/tax income.
You mentioned IOU's ..none of those IOUs have been paid and yes Bill Clinton/Newt robbed more from the fund since Ronald Reagan/Geo H. W

[1939]

42. It predates Clinton/Gingrich

LBJ was the one who established the "unified budget" which rolled the trust funds like social security and highway gas tax money into the total budget calculation to disguise the size if the deficits that his "guns and butter" budgets were creating.

[PoliticAverse]

55. The Government owes Social Security 2.7 Trillion dollars because...

Social Security buys US Government guaranteed securities with any
excess funds it has and is credited with any interest earned by those
securities.

That's how the system has always operated.

The Reason for the 2.7 Trillion dollar excess is because payroll taxes were raised as part of the Greenspan Commission Plan (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan_Commission ).

And you don't actually have an "individual fund".

For an extensive explanation of the Social Security Trust Fund and
the budgetary treatment of Social Security see:
https://www.ssa.gov/history/BudgetTreatment.html

[TexasBushwhacker]

60. Thank you!

The reason that SS will eventually have more outgo than income is not because the federal government is robbing its coffers. It is because of income inequality. Before so much income was going to the 1%, about 90% of all income was subject to SS tax. Now it's down around 80%. So the cap needs to be raised in some way (there are different scenarios) so that 90% of all income is again subject to SS tax. That would make it perpetually solvent.

[madokie]

37. This sob should be rode out of town on a rail

after being tarred and feathered.
Yes Hillary we want you making decisions for us, NOT. Sure this is one of her biggest supporters so I don't want to hear anything about how I'm picking on him and his kind, Hillary too.

[onecaliberal]

39. This is the guy who owns Hillary. Anyone who thinks she isn't going to cut it is out of their tiny

little minds.

[hifiguy]

47. And don't ever forget it.

[smirkymonkey]

40. So effing hate this guy.

They have so much money and it's still not enough. They want it all. They want what is rightfully owed to the rest of us as well. They are the most repulsive creatures on the face of the earth. I really want to see these pigs suffer before I die.

[irisblue]

43. Increase his taxes to cover more benefits

and put a 10cent tax on fast computer traded stocks. that would go a long way to helping.
And by the way

Fuck this Guy

[Still Waters]

53. Sorry, Lloyd, we can't afford more tax cuts for the rich

and these obscenely low tax rates on billionaires.

[moondust]

57. Wrong again, Lloyd.

There's plenty of wealth in existence to provide for a reasonably comfortable life and retirement for everybody. Plenty. But far too much of it is concentrated in far too few hands like your own, Lloyd. We just need to get serious about deconcentrating it.

[Bernblu]

58. He should change his name to Lord Blankfein

What a POS.

[JEB]

63. What we can't afford is arrogant greedy assholes like him.

[HughBeaumont]

64. Lloyd Bankfiend went on CNBC to call Bernie's rhetoric "dangerous".

He's recovering from a round of chemo, and somehow has time to shill for laissez-fail as usual.

How much of a pile of suck does one have to be that even healing from a horrible disease doesn't prevent them from politicizing economic matters?

[geardaddy]

65. Good observation!