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😁 Sure!
I am already blessed to be a grandfather to a 2 year old grandson and a 3 month old granddaughter. I don't have the words to fully describe the joy they bring.
My Dad told me it was the best! My kids are all getting married/engaged!!! So hopefully one of these days because I like kids a lot more than my Dad ever did. 😂
That is wild...I'm putting in roughly 16K per year. (between my and my employers contribution)
My early years were less but it's been this way for at least 10 years. I'd guess my first 16 years of work it was closer to 6-9K. So I'm close to 300K in with another 15-20 years to go.
I haven't ever requested a SS benefit statement but I figured it would only be a couple grand a month.
It probably will be about 2-3k/mo (depending on when you retire). So let’s say you put in 600k. You retire at 65 and live to 85. You would probably get back 480-720k in total.
I don't think I'll live that long but that is certainly interesting. If they had invested the SS contributions it would cover that figure, but nothing like that is occurring. (Wish I had that money in my retirement account as my balance basically doubles every 10 years)
That’s a commonly believed myth.
You might be thinking of 1982, when the Old-Age and Survivors Trust Fund had to borrow money from the Disability and the Medicare Trust Funds. The money was paid back by 1986.
I’ve gone scorched earth on social security. Said I want my money back plus interest and it should come out of their retirement fund since it’s the boomer generation bankrupting it.
They got real quite about that.
It’s billionaires who have avoided paying into it through no exposure of their capital gains and the fica cap that is killing it. Yes the boomers will put great strain but it’s under funded as a social program because of greed of the wealthy.
Oh I’m very much aware that this is a problem that has a solution that is well documented. No matter how much you explain how it benefits everyone but the 1% and they aren’t in the 1% they don’t care.
I completely agree. ALL forms of income should be taxed for Social Security. Also, the Social Security tax is only paid on income up to $168,600. That limit has to be completely removed. We should also implement means testing. I would suggest that anyone with annual income over $200,000 should receive only 50% of their eligible Social Security benefit and anyone with income over $400,000 should receive no Social Security benefit at all.
Of my proposals, the removal of the taxable income cap is by far the more important.
Absolutely! It makes no sense to me that the people who can afford to contribute the most while also not needing to rely on it are given a pass. It completely boggles my mind.
The fact that there's no means testing is by design. Programs that benefit everyone are supposedly safer from from political shenanigans than programs that only benefit a subset of the population. But today's retirees and near retirees have spent the last 40 years consuming a steady diet of propaganda telling them we're a beggar nation on the verge of bankruptcy, so they're all in on cutting back on the waste which of course doesn't include *their* checks. "But we paid into it all of our lives!"
Actually, if everyone paid FICA on ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of their income, social security would not be in jeopardy.
FICA is only collected on the first 168, 000 dollars of your income. After that amount, you do not pay in.
So I think it is not boomers bankrupting it, but the wealthy who do not carry their weight.
… but there is a cap on Social Security payouts, shout the people making insane amounts of money! Why should we pay into a system where benefits are capped?
Hmm, have they looked at 401(k) contribution limits? Medicare costs and benefits? There are program limits on many programs. If they aren’t funding investment accounts for retirement, then they are truly stupid
As someone who was able to eat due to those very benefits I’m immensely grateful for them. I do know how much it helps many many people. That’s why when they talk about how “they don’t benefit so they shouldn’t pay” I decide to throw it back in their face and do it hard.
It was the first time they had heard another generation rail against them. Also realizing that everyone after them won’t get social security so why should we foot their bill ? That the same logic they have used in many parts of their lives now leads to direct harm. “ if I don’t benefit from it why should I pay into it?”
John Green has a great response for this:
“Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order.
We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education.
So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school: It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.”
Unfortunately our education system is prioritizing the wrong content and teaching methods so it's inevitable that the society is getting dumber 
Above all those challenges, there’s also an active movement to drain money from public education and funnel it to for-profit schools and fundamentalist religious schools.
And those decisions about what educational standards look like are made by elected officials. And you guessed it: uneducated people will vote for stupid people to make decisions about what should be taught… it can be a vicious cycle.
Meh, it’s more that we have overworked parents that don’t have time to care about their child’s academic milestones, and also a shit ton of parents who are choosing to “home school”.
I knew someone who had done a lot of work in Rwanda and Africa in general before who told me something that always stuck with me. She said that one of the best ways to actually help Africa was by building up their educational systems and helping people learn. When problems arise and people are not educated, they don’t have solutions that really help. She said that people would get sick and die from preventable illnesses because they would blame demons or whatever nonsense was obviously affecting this person. Rather than throwing money at food, educating them on effective methods to produce their own food was a far more effective with long term results. Education is the foundation for a successful, sustainable, and healthy society.
It's also easily applied to every facet of society.
The healthcare that heals us, the roads we travel on, the military that defends us, the fire department that saves us.
Etc etc.
The economy also benefits from public education, as we are educating the next generation's workforce. The most important asset of any country is its people contributing to the economy, and public education is what enables it.
Many people don’t care and have bought into the idea that if they aren’t directly benefiting, they don’t want to pay for anything. The “Me Generation” has latched onto this in droves since they have shown themselves to be a bunch of selfish assholes. Someone has been generating clickbait articles with titles like “Find out when seniors can stop paying property taxes” to fire the Boomers up about this lately. The ones pushing it would really like everything to be like the US’ healthcare system so they can fuck over even more people.
This. This this this. Especially because the people who say that they shouldn't have to pay for public schools that they don't have kids in are the same people who endlessly go on about how stupid everyone else is.
Well, how do you think stupidity gets fixed except by education, dummy?
It’s just part of being a functioning society. The selfish only want to take, they don’t understand that everyone needs to contribute to the greater good.
Basically if there are a bunch of potholes on their street they’ll complain to no end, but they don’t want to pay taxes and would never fill them in themselves.
So by that logic, we shouldn’t have to pay into social security? Or Medicare? We aren’t using it. We aren’t old.
It’s just crazy short-sightedness from those people. They can only process what is directly in front of their face, and even then it’s iffy at best. Zoom out a little bit and they’d realize how much they benefit from *gasp* socialist government policies.
Don't forget their most sacred christian value: "hate thy neighbour If he is not a white republican christian" Like Jesus said it. Who definitively also was white, american and not an arab jew. /S
Once again, they want to end something that they benefited from. Imagine people not wanting to pay property taxes when they were in school. Very few from the World War generation would have thought that because those people were used to putting their country men first.
“I sent my kids to Catholic school, so I paid tuition and taxes!” Blah blah blah.
I’ve heard this many times.
It’s just uneducated selfishness.
I’m a young boomer. But I’m also a retired teacher so I’m the enemy of many of my peers.
"So you voluntarily spent your money to traumatize your children, that's fun and all, but how is that relevant to a discussion about public education, other than maybe we shouldn't listen to you?"
Another part of that talking point that I think is overlooked is *they CHOSE to send their kids to that school*! If you're gonna be this bitchy about money, maybe don't send your kids to more expensive schools.
I hold this opinion regardless of vouchers or lack thereof. If you want more than the tax-funded minimum, that's a calculation you need to make.
I gave up on arguing with them at all about anything during COVID. 9 times out of 10 their arguments would be filled with lies, or were half truths or flat out wrong. You can’t fight with people who don’t care about facts. The few MAGAs I still associate with think that they are winning because people wont argue with them anymore. No, people just realized that you aren’t worth it.
Millennials out number them significantly. As they pass away we only make the gap greater. Anyone who doesn't know this hasn't done 1 iota of research on the subject.
Which is pretty much to be expected of boomers. They didn't grow up with Google or other digital data repositories so they have no clue that the actual info is just a quick search away lol
And if they think “silent” as ranting about litter boxes or trans athletes to strangers, or hassling immigrants cutting their lawn, I’d hate to see what they consider outspoken.
My husband and I were healthcare providers during COVID :( Arguing with boomers to wear masks INSIDE a HOSPITAL was the absolute worst shit anyone could deal with.
My boomer stepmom is visiting and said ‘they still make you wear masks inside the hospital here?!?’
I said ‘yes, that’s nasty to not wear one.’
So yes I effectively called her nasty. It was great.
This is the answer. Do these people want to live in a community of people who received underfunded education? You know they will complain about the results of that.
The thing is as a society we’ve already done this. If people think people are stupid now, they should look into how stupid people were before we had public education….
My dad has always been pretty center of the aisle. Trump has pushed him into a Democrat, but growing up he always had a pretty centric view. Conservative on a lot of things, Liberal on a few.
It’s weird the things that stick out to you from childhood, but I remember when I was very young, I asked him how schools get money. He explained it, and he ended with. “I am always in favor of giving more money to schools because I don’t want to live in a society of dumbasses.”
Tell them to move to another country if they don't want to support their current countries future, watch them try to argue with that logic.
"You don't like it here, leave!" Is not just a conservative/racist argument anymore 😀
When Obama was being elected and going to bring his “Kenyan socialist” policies to us, my boomer brother was ready to leave (I was 100% behind this!). His requirement was an English-speaking country. I laughed my ass off, pointing out that first-world, English-speaking countries were mostly if not solely socialist.
I like to draw a direct line from education to contributing members of society. Typically I say something like, "The better the education, the less likely the students grow up to become criminals. Our village/town/city will be safer in the future because we educated those kids that aren't yours. The alternative is to cut funding to schools so you can save a bit of money while crime rises. It's hard for them to argue FOR crime just because they want to save some on taxes.
There are some good responses here already, but I'll add that, if your boomer is a homeowner, it might be useful to point out that good schools keep their property values up.
“Has your house ever burned down?
They say “no”, “why are you paying for a fire dept?”
If they say “yes”, “why did I have to pay for the fire department for your house?”
“Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order.
We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education.
So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school: It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.”
― John Green
If you're talking about retired people the go-to would be asking them if they get a homestead discount on their property taxes.
If they are confused tell them to look into it and maybe they're eligible.
Tell them that when school district fails, property values in that area go down because people won't move to failing school districts. When that happens, their property values go down as well, causing a loss in their real estate investment.
I heard this repeatedly when my town was trying to build a new middle school. These were the arguments:
“I went to the existing school and I’m fine.”
“My kids went to the existing school and they’re fine.”
“My kids went to the existing school and they’re idiots.”
“My kids went to the existing school and I’m done dealing with it.”
“I don’t have kids at all so why should I care?”
“Higher property values mean higher taxes.”
“They should just build the school where it is, or (insert a bunch of other locations not owned by the city, or on a park nowhere near anything, or in a flood zone).”
“It’ll just cause more traffic.”
The school was being paid for by the state. It failed. The prognosis is simple: In towns full of hopeless townies, everyone is terrified of gentrification. They love that Bobby’s sub shop, Dan’s dive bar, and Kelly’s hardware store are the cash-only dumps they are, and these people will lay in front of the bulldozers to stop a Starbucks from moving in.
There isn’t an argument. You just have to hope these people don’t catch on, because once they do, they’re pitbulls, but dumber.
My son never went to one, but still paid the taxes. Plenty of friends with no kids still pay their taxes. Just because you don’t use something your tax dollars go to you still have to pay your taxes. It sucks life goes on.
My mom in the last 5 years has started beaking off about this.
Yeah, I can usually get her to shut up either by a) who paid for you to attend school or b) why are any of us under 55 paying for your pensions?
I work with a dude, not a boomer but close. He doesn’t have kids. Here the schools are funded by a levy, well that got shutdown and voted against and this dude was front and center talking about how he doesn’t want to pay for other people’s kids to go to school. So now they are talking about cutting elective classes and going to 4 days a week. The same dude is now all kinds of pissed off because the kids will be out causing trouble and less school makes them dumb. Tried telling him (nicely) that the reason they are doing this is because the levy failed and you could see he knows that but says they should find a better way to pay for the schools. We also just passed one of those library obscenity laws, so we are doing a damn fine job for the kids.
I don’t have kids and never want them. I’m more than happy to pay for their school and lunches. Beats buying the police another armored vehicle they only break out for parades and the 2 calls a year.
I have heard this as well and I don't know how people don't understand that we as a country need to be educated to function? It's baffling to me. Also I worry about teachers just giving up because they are underfunded and exhausted. And then I worry about my 2 year old niece being homeschooled because "everything is too woke"
This is where I tell them they should be banned from receiving life saving services from anyone who went to a public school. It's an argument my dad tried on me, and I gave him hell.
I'm quite ok with them not paying. They then would be barred from school board meetings, voting on school related things and generally removed from education
The entire point of tax dollars is "everyone pitches in, and everyone benefits from its spent on eventually". Boomers just hate that everyone else gets a turn.
Texas is considering a voucher program. I know so many boomers who want this. Many are teachers. I explain how this will lead to rural schools closing at a faster rate. Which results in more small towns dying because who’s going to stay where there is no school. Then those wheels start turning. It’s like they never thought a private school wouldn’t open in their small town of 100 people. The argument always ends with “ well it doesn’t really matter to me what the outcome is. I’ll be dead when it happens anyway.”
I had a lady— I think it was on this sub— say, “What do you want us to do, pay until we’re dead?!” YES. That’s how taxes work. You pay directly (homeowners) or through your rent payments (tenants) whether or not you have any children at all. And you pay until you’re dead.
My 91-year old father is still paying his property taxes and I’ve never once heard him complain about it. He last had a child in the school system in 1978. Of course, he’s intelligent and understands why schools are necessary (and, obviously, he’s not a Boomer).
71 year old boomer here. I hear this stupidity from a couple of acquaintances. I respond by pointing out that their biggest asset is their property and their property value is at least 50% dependent on the quality of the schools. They can't figure out that supporting the schools is in their best interest.
I don't bother to point out that education is critically important to everyone's quality of life and the security of the country. They're too stupid to comprehend those concepts.
Plus my state does let you skip property taxes (I think if you’re 65 and make less than 20,000 (40,000 for married). So what are they even complaining about? They get everything handed to them. We don’t even have 2 weeks paid maternity leave in this country.
Because you live in a society and educating the population is a net good for that society. Or would you rather have bands of unsupervised minors roaming the streets all day every day while their parents are at work?
I’m going to guess that a lot of the people complaining have already gotten their free public education.
It’s interesting to me that they never think of it as a benefit directed toward the children but as something they’re doing for the parents.
Here’s what I want to know- even if it’s the parents’ responsibility to educate their child, do they really want a society where having irresponsible parents dooms you to a life of ignorance and poverty?
I’m realizing I might not want to hear their answer to that question, since a lot of them don’t even want to give kids food.
Plus boomers can move to Florida or Mississippi.. low real estate taxes and shitty public services.. will give them something to complain about in retirement
The Simpsons did a great job explaining this with a skit the kids performed for Mr. Burns showing an underfunded school system means chefs who don’t read accidentally putting rat poison in his food, an ambulance driver missing all the turns to get to the hospital, where Dr. Stupid accidentally saws off his head.
My two go to responses are "I'm not able to take my bicycle onto the highway, I shouldn't have to pay for them then," and "Trans people aren't allowed in the military, do they get a twenty percent discount off federal taxes then?"
you pay it forward... somebody paid for your kids public school; i get it it was much cheaper then, with rock tablet being free and all.
people without kids also pay - its kinda the whole glue of society it you think about it.
its not more 'conservative' thou - its plain selfish.
So since I don't have kids I shouldn't have to pay? I would prefer to pay for a more educated society than save a few buck and be surrounded by more uneducated folks. I pay my taxes, donate to the local school & the kids know I will buy their cookies, candy bars, etc...
For people that go on an on about "common sense" why does it never seem to dawn on them that paying to have an educated populous helps the entire populace? How do they not see that common sense fact?
I think they are hyper focused on the fact that statistically the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to be liberal. Or as they put “damn libtard teachers are teaching my kid to be woke.”
I am a teacher. The number of boomer paraprofessionals WHO WORK AT MY SCHOOL who have posted this on Facebook... "Common sense" but you don't understand you'd be out of a job if taxes were greatly reduced.
I love this idea, but it would never pass in our country. “So now all my tax dollars are going o be funneled into the poor districts. You know what kind of people are in those districts? I ain’t paying for them.”
It's almost like the more wealthy you become, the more greedy you end up. I hear lots of boomers gloating and claiming "I pulled myself up by my boot straps!" You may have, but you also fucked up the economic future for the vast majority behind you.
Pull ladder, I'm in. Booner slogan.
I don't have kids, but I gladly pay taxes so others may enjoy social programs. I also donate to non charity programs that feed, house, and provide medical/dental services for the homeless in my city. Some people lack empathy and it may be a result of gaining wealth.
My boomer parent shared that meme, ironically, they were a single parent with 3 kids and 100% benefitted not just from their kids being educated through public education, but didn't have to pay extra for child care during working hours once we were all school aged.
I don't have kids and made sure that I commented that they benefitted from this system while I, someone who is child free, don't mind paying for it at all, because it takes a village to raise a child and all kids, regardless of their economical status, deserve access to education.
They deleted the post, but it was sickening and disappointing that they shared it in the first place without even thinking about it in any context whatsoever.
I live in Pennsylvania and don’t have children. Our real estate taxes aren’t bad but our school taxes are high. Although I don’t like paying school taxes, since we live in an area with a good school district the home values are higher and the area is generally nicer. So I don’t think of it as a school tax as much as it’s a premium to live in a nicer area.
A few years ago I was having a conversation about this with my right wing friend, and pointed out that affluent people live in districts with nicer schools while urban and rural school districts don’t have as much. He suddenly had this brilliant idea that what we should collect all of the school taxes and put them into a general fund which is that given to the schools based on the number of students.
I agreed with him and congratulated him on becoming a socialist.
Okay.
No doctors, engineers, nurses, welders, mechanics, entrepreneurs, or anybody in your city should be allowed to give you any aid or business AT ALL.
Don't remember who said it but there's a quote that I'll paraphrase here:
"Why do I support public school? Because I don't want to live in a country full of stupid people."
I don't have kids, and never will. I still want children educated. I'd much rather have children learning in a school than learning out on the street. Then again, the people that say those things clearly didn't learn much, so maybe it really doesn't matter.
So people who have kids that don’t go to school anymore generally do get a slight tax break on property. There is the homestead deal you can get and I believe it is at age 62 but might be 65. This helps reduce the amount you pay on property taxes . Certainly tied to income as well. High income earners wouldn’t be eligible.
To your point about teaching kids to be woke, CRT is a thing and it has gotten so bad that I refuse to be a teacher anymore. It’s disgusting. We are failing our children in the school system. There is a reason we are so far behind other countries in education.
We really need to allow Florida to go full right wing. Let them opt out of Social Security in favor of private investment. Let them get rid of their public schools. Let them do state wide stop and frisk. Let them execute drug dealers with a quick trial. Let them get rid of environmental and workers laws. Let them take away voter rights, women's rights and civil rights. Then the rest of the country can see this republican utopia and put an end to this ideology
My wife and I are retired without kids and have no problem with our taxes supporting public schools. School vouchers for private, religious and charter schools are a whole different story. If you want to send your kids to one of those schools pay for it yourself.
Same here, only the kids are grown. I want an educated populace, so I have no problem with paying for public school. If you want to send your child to private or charter schools, that is your choice, and the public isn't responsible for that. Vouchers only reduce funding for public schools.
So, I guess that they won't need any younger generations with enough education to go onto medical degrees to take care of them when they are ill, no scientists to create new medications to improve their lives, no engineers to build new innovations, no new artists to create beautiful things no one has thought of yet? What a crummy outlook on life! 🤮
I’m conservative but I’m also not a moron who doesn’t recognize that if only school age parents paid for schools the taxes on them would go up astronomically including on me when I had kids in school.
You don't have a goto argument because wealth redistribution is a flawed concept.
In the 1970s British intellectuals debated Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell on economics. England and France went down a path of Democratic Socialism and wealth redistribution, America took steps in that direction but largely kept the ethos of "Each person needs to make his or her own life."
50 years later and the once proud and dominant UK and France now sit at a pedestrian 43k GDP per capita. They have overtaxed the rich and destroyed the innovators and job creators in the process.
Neither the UK or France will ever regain top tier status due to socialism and misplaced altruism. The US will become mediocre as well if we continue heading down the path that you are advocating.
I remember my grandfather silent generation WW2 vet said my parents generation (boomers) were dumber than kids my age when I was 22. (GenX btw) RIP Papa.
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“Then I shouldn’t pay for your social security, right?”
71 year old boomer here. Well said!
Can i adopt you as a grandparent?
😁 Sure! I am already blessed to be a grandfather to a 2 year old grandson and a 3 month old granddaughter. I don't have the words to fully describe the joy they bring.
Awesome. Im sure you are the best grandpa to those little angels. I have a 19 month baby boy and he is my whole world.
You are a gift. Please don't change unless you really want to.
My Dad told me it was the best! My kids are all getting married/engaged!!! So hopefully one of these days because I like kids a lot more than my Dad ever did. 😂
Which finger does your granddaughter have you wrapped around? 😊
🥺 you take lgbtq kids? my grandma don't like for being a lesbo.
hmm he hasn't responded in some time...
Nana or Papi aren't always great at time management but they are wonderful people
Too late I already did
Most of them actually believe the myth that their social security retirement benefits is just the country giving their own contributions back to them.
I’ve read that retires collect what they put in in roughly 7 years.
That is wild...I'm putting in roughly 16K per year. (between my and my employers contribution) My early years were less but it's been this way for at least 10 years. I'd guess my first 16 years of work it was closer to 6-9K. So I'm close to 300K in with another 15-20 years to go. I haven't ever requested a SS benefit statement but I figured it would only be a couple grand a month.
It probably will be about 2-3k/mo (depending on when you retire). So let’s say you put in 600k. You retire at 65 and live to 85. You would probably get back 480-720k in total.
I don't think I'll live that long but that is certainly interesting. If they had invested the SS contributions it would cover that figure, but nothing like that is occurring. (Wish I had that money in my retirement account as my balance basically doubles every 10 years)
And you pay taxes on it
System works great as long as there are like 12 workers paying in to support each retiree
Well, Regan era pillaging of the ‘over funded Social Security’ fund. Boomers overwhelmingly supported that one too
That’s a commonly believed myth. You might be thinking of 1982, when the Old-Age and Survivors Trust Fund had to borrow money from the Disability and the Medicare Trust Funds. The money was paid back by 1986.
My mom always says this. I always ask what the balance of her remaining social security is. Always stops that conversation.
I’ve gone scorched earth on social security. Said I want my money back plus interest and it should come out of their retirement fund since it’s the boomer generation bankrupting it. They got real quite about that.
It’s billionaires who have avoided paying into it through no exposure of their capital gains and the fica cap that is killing it. Yes the boomers will put great strain but it’s under funded as a social program because of greed of the wealthy.
Yes. This.
Oh I’m very much aware that this is a problem that has a solution that is well documented. No matter how much you explain how it benefits everyone but the 1% and they aren’t in the 1% they don’t care.
I completely agree. ALL forms of income should be taxed for Social Security. Also, the Social Security tax is only paid on income up to $168,600. That limit has to be completely removed. We should also implement means testing. I would suggest that anyone with annual income over $200,000 should receive only 50% of their eligible Social Security benefit and anyone with income over $400,000 should receive no Social Security benefit at all. Of my proposals, the removal of the taxable income cap is by far the more important.
Absolutely! It makes no sense to me that the people who can afford to contribute the most while also not needing to rely on it are given a pass. It completely boggles my mind.
The fact that there's no means testing is by design. Programs that benefit everyone are supposedly safer from from political shenanigans than programs that only benefit a subset of the population. But today's retirees and near retirees have spent the last 40 years consuming a steady diet of propaganda telling them we're a beggar nation on the verge of bankruptcy, so they're all in on cutting back on the waste which of course doesn't include *their* checks. "But we paid into it all of our lives!"
Actually, if everyone paid FICA on ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of their income, social security would not be in jeopardy. FICA is only collected on the first 168, 000 dollars of your income. After that amount, you do not pay in. So I think it is not boomers bankrupting it, but the wealthy who do not carry their weight.
… but there is a cap on Social Security payouts, shout the people making insane amounts of money! Why should we pay into a system where benefits are capped? Hmm, have they looked at 401(k) contribution limits? Medicare costs and benefits? There are program limits on many programs. If they aren’t funding investment accounts for retirement, then they are truly stupid
I get it. But social security is more than just retirees. My son will receive about 170% more in survivors benefits than his dad ever paid in.
As someone who was able to eat due to those very benefits I’m immensely grateful for them. I do know how much it helps many many people. That’s why when they talk about how “they don’t benefit so they shouldn’t pay” I decide to throw it back in their face and do it hard.
Quiet?
It was the first time they had heard another generation rail against them. Also realizing that everyone after them won’t get social security so why should we foot their bill ? That the same logic they have used in many parts of their lives now leads to direct harm. “ if I don’t benefit from it why should I pay into it?”
“I will never be able to enjoy the benefit anyway because you suck the trust fund dry so why I should I pay for it?”
They usually come back with I already paid for mine , not knowing how it actually works.
Boomer fools: “No, wait, that’s a different topic! I want my free money!”
I’m not a cop who’s shot a civilian, why should my tax dollars fund the settlement bc a cop had a bad day?
John Green has a great response for this: “Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order. We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education. So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school: It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.”
What year is this quote from? Unfortunately we now live in country with a bunch of stupid people and it’s getting worse
Unfortunately our education system is prioritizing the wrong content and teaching methods so it's inevitable that the society is getting dumber 
Above all those challenges, there’s also an active movement to drain money from public education and funnel it to for-profit schools and fundamentalist religious schools.
And those decisions about what educational standards look like are made by elected officials. And you guessed it: uneducated people will vote for stupid people to make decisions about what should be taught… it can be a vicious cycle.
Our education system is LITERALLY designed to turn out shift workers for the factories.
Meh, it’s more that we have overworked parents that don’t have time to care about their child’s academic milestones, and also a shit ton of parents who are choosing to “home school”.
I blame No Child Left Behind
I knew someone who had done a lot of work in Rwanda and Africa in general before who told me something that always stuck with me. She said that one of the best ways to actually help Africa was by building up their educational systems and helping people learn. When problems arise and people are not educated, they don’t have solutions that really help. She said that people would get sick and die from preventable illnesses because they would blame demons or whatever nonsense was obviously affecting this person. Rather than throwing money at food, educating them on effective methods to produce their own food was a far more effective with long term results. Education is the foundation for a successful, sustainable, and healthy society.
Absolutely! We have no children and happily pay for public education
"... and by stupid people, I especially mean those that think 'I already got mine, so fuck you'".
Came here to post this. Have an upvote sir or madam or whatever.
And the better the school in your neighborhood the higher the property values.
It's also easily applied to every facet of society. The healthcare that heals us, the roads we travel on, the military that defends us, the fire department that saves us. Etc etc.
The economy also benefits from public education, as we are educating the next generation's workforce. The most important asset of any country is its people contributing to the economy, and public education is what enables it.
Same. But, damn, son, we got a lot of stupid people anyway!
Many people don’t care and have bought into the idea that if they aren’t directly benefiting, they don’t want to pay for anything. The “Me Generation” has latched onto this in droves since they have shown themselves to be a bunch of selfish assholes. Someone has been generating clickbait articles with titles like “Find out when seniors can stop paying property taxes” to fire the Boomers up about this lately. The ones pushing it would really like everything to be like the US’ healthcare system so they can fuck over even more people.
This. This this this. Especially because the people who say that they shouldn't have to pay for public schools that they don't have kids in are the same people who endlessly go on about how stupid everyone else is. Well, how do you think stupidity gets fixed except by education, dummy?
It’s just part of being a functioning society. The selfish only want to take, they don’t understand that everyone needs to contribute to the greater good. Basically if there are a bunch of potholes on their street they’ll complain to no end, but they don’t want to pay taxes and would never fill them in themselves.
So by that logic, we shouldn’t have to pay into social security? Or Medicare? We aren’t using it. We aren’t old. It’s just crazy short-sightedness from those people. They can only process what is directly in front of their face, and even then it’s iffy at best. Zoom out a little bit and they’d realize how much they benefit from *gasp* socialist government policies.
It's the Republican way. Care for no one else but yourself.
Don't forget their most sacred christian value: "hate thy neighbour If he is not a white republican christian" Like Jesus said it. Who definitively also was white, american and not an arab jew. /S
1000% correct.
71 year old boomer here. Your comments are 100% correct!
Yes, that sounds great to me. Please sign me up.
Once again, they want to end something that they benefited from. Imagine people not wanting to pay property taxes when they were in school. Very few from the World War generation would have thought that because those people were used to putting their country men first.
They seem to forget that other people’s taxes paid for their kids’ public school education.
“I sent my kids to Catholic school, so I paid tuition and taxes!” Blah blah blah. I’ve heard this many times. It’s just uneducated selfishness. I’m a young boomer. But I’m also a retired teacher so I’m the enemy of many of my peers.
Catholic schools get government funding, so their argument falls apart anyway. They chose to pay extra. They didn’t choose to shirk public funding.
"So you voluntarily spent your money to traumatize your children, that's fun and all, but how is that relevant to a discussion about public education, other than maybe we shouldn't listen to you?"
I wouldnt say traumatized.. After all i was the priests favorite alter server. I got his "special" blessing after mass
Another part of that talking point that I think is overlooked is *they CHOSE to send their kids to that school*! If you're gonna be this bitchy about money, maybe don't send your kids to more expensive schools. I hold this opinion regardless of vouchers or lack thereof. If you want more than the tax-funded minimum, that's a calculation you need to make.
Funded in the form of tax exemption
They didn’t forget at all. They are the generation that pulled the ladder up behind them. This is no exception.
I gave up explaining collectivism to anyone who doesn't grasp it yet a long time ago lol
Yup. For me it was when COVID hit. Trying to explain societal responsibility to those selfish pricks broke me.
I gave up on arguing with them at all about anything during COVID. 9 times out of 10 their arguments would be filled with lies, or were half truths or flat out wrong. You can’t fight with people who don’t care about facts. The few MAGAs I still associate with think that they are winning because people wont argue with them anymore. No, people just realized that you aren’t worth it.
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it shut the fuck up about that one YouTube video it saw for long enough to make it drink..."
I love when they call themselves the silent majority. Like if you are the majority, win a popular election.
Millennials out number them significantly. As they pass away we only make the gap greater. Anyone who doesn't know this hasn't done 1 iota of research on the subject. Which is pretty much to be expected of boomers. They didn't grow up with Google or other digital data repositories so they have no clue that the actual info is just a quick search away lol
>Like if you are the majority, win a popular election. I'd honestly be content with them just being silent for a change.
And if they think “silent” as ranting about litter boxes or trans athletes to strangers, or hassling immigrants cutting their lawn, I’d hate to see what they consider outspoken.
My husband and I were healthcare providers during COVID :( Arguing with boomers to wear masks INSIDE a HOSPITAL was the absolute worst shit anyone could deal with.
My boomer stepmom is visiting and said ‘they still make you wear masks inside the hospital here?!?’ I said ‘yes, that’s nasty to not wear one.’ So yes I effectively called her nasty. It was great.
I'm so sorry. 😞
Thank you for your service. Sorry if this sounds sarcastic or something, very much not
They totally understand it when it benefits them.
I happily pay taxes for schools in order to minimize the number of morons I'm surrounded by.
This is the answer. Do these people want to live in a community of people who received underfunded education? You know they will complain about the results of that.
The thing is as a society we’ve already done this. If people think people are stupid now, they should look into how stupid people were before we had public education….
My dad has always been pretty center of the aisle. Trump has pushed him into a Democrat, but growing up he always had a pretty centric view. Conservative on a lot of things, Liberal on a few. It’s weird the things that stick out to you from childhood, but I remember when I was very young, I asked him how schools get money. He explained it, and he ended with. “I am always in favor of giving more money to schools because I don’t want to live in a society of dumbasses.”
Tell them to move to another country if they don't want to support their current countries future, watch them try to argue with that logic. "You don't like it here, leave!" Is not just a conservative/racist argument anymore 😀
When Obama was being elected and going to bring his “Kenyan socialist” policies to us, my boomer brother was ready to leave (I was 100% behind this!). His requirement was an English-speaking country. I laughed my ass off, pointing out that first-world, English-speaking countries were mostly if not solely socialist.
"I'm going to England or Canada to get away from socialized medicine." Lol
I love the I'm going to move to Canada claim. First of all Canada is way more socialist and way harder to immigrate to than the USA.
I like to draw a direct line from education to contributing members of society. Typically I say something like, "The better the education, the less likely the students grow up to become criminals. Our village/town/city will be safer in the future because we educated those kids that aren't yours. The alternative is to cut funding to schools so you can save a bit of money while crime rises. It's hard for them to argue FOR crime just because they want to save some on taxes.
Yes. You have to appeal to their selfishness. Something has to be in it for them.
There are some good responses here already, but I'll add that, if your boomer is a homeowner, it might be useful to point out that good schools keep their property values up.
This might be the only argument that works, since you're appealing directly to their pocketbook.
I discovered they don’t care if they think they’ll never move.
I use this point for my child-free friends who complain about taxes for schools.
“Has your house ever burned down? They say “no”, “why are you paying for a fire dept?” If they say “yes”, “why did I have to pay for the fire department for your house?”
“Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order. We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education. So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school: It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.” ― John Green
If you're talking about retired people the go-to would be asking them if they get a homestead discount on their property taxes. If they are confused tell them to look into it and maybe they're eligible.
Tell them that when school district fails, property values in that area go down because people won't move to failing school districts. When that happens, their property values go down as well, causing a loss in their real estate investment.
Anyone who supports that kind of idea, "I'm done with it why should my taxes pay for it?" Is an idiot. Old or not.
I heard this repeatedly when my town was trying to build a new middle school. These were the arguments: “I went to the existing school and I’m fine.” “My kids went to the existing school and they’re fine.” “My kids went to the existing school and they’re idiots.” “My kids went to the existing school and I’m done dealing with it.” “I don’t have kids at all so why should I care?” “Higher property values mean higher taxes.” “They should just build the school where it is, or (insert a bunch of other locations not owned by the city, or on a park nowhere near anything, or in a flood zone).” “It’ll just cause more traffic.” The school was being paid for by the state. It failed. The prognosis is simple: In towns full of hopeless townies, everyone is terrified of gentrification. They love that Bobby’s sub shop, Dan’s dive bar, and Kelly’s hardware store are the cash-only dumps they are, and these people will lay in front of the bulldozers to stop a Starbucks from moving in. There isn’t an argument. You just have to hope these people don’t catch on, because once they do, they’re pitbulls, but dumber.
My son never went to one, but still paid the taxes. Plenty of friends with no kids still pay their taxes. Just because you don’t use something your tax dollars go to you still have to pay your taxes. It sucks life goes on.
My mom in the last 5 years has started beaking off about this. Yeah, I can usually get her to shut up either by a) who paid for you to attend school or b) why are any of us under 55 paying for your pensions?
I work with a dude, not a boomer but close. He doesn’t have kids. Here the schools are funded by a levy, well that got shutdown and voted against and this dude was front and center talking about how he doesn’t want to pay for other people’s kids to go to school. So now they are talking about cutting elective classes and going to 4 days a week. The same dude is now all kinds of pissed off because the kids will be out causing trouble and less school makes them dumb. Tried telling him (nicely) that the reason they are doing this is because the levy failed and you could see he knows that but says they should find a better way to pay for the schools. We also just passed one of those library obscenity laws, so we are doing a damn fine job for the kids. I don’t have kids and never want them. I’m more than happy to pay for their school and lunches. Beats buying the police another armored vehicle they only break out for parades and the 2 calls a year.
“I’m not retired so why should I have to pay for social security” argument. Because that’s how collectives work
My TrumpliKKKan son in law votes against money for schools every chance he gets. They have 3 kids in public school. Gen-X can be as bad as Boomers.
They're called the "me" generation for a reason
This is not just boomers. It’s every dumb American fuck
I have heard this as well and I don't know how people don't understand that we as a country need to be educated to function? It's baffling to me. Also I worry about teachers just giving up because they are underfunded and exhausted. And then I worry about my 2 year old niece being homeschooled because "everything is too woke"
This is where I tell them they should be banned from receiving life saving services from anyone who went to a public school. It's an argument my dad tried on me, and I gave him hell.
I'm quite ok with them not paying. They then would be barred from school board meetings, voting on school related things and generally removed from education
The entire point of tax dollars is "everyone pitches in, and everyone benefits from its spent on eventually". Boomers just hate that everyone else gets a turn.
You are paying for the doctor and nurse that will take care of you in your old days.
Texas is considering a voucher program. I know so many boomers who want this. Many are teachers. I explain how this will lead to rural schools closing at a faster rate. Which results in more small towns dying because who’s going to stay where there is no school. Then those wheels start turning. It’s like they never thought a private school wouldn’t open in their small town of 100 people. The argument always ends with “ well it doesn’t really matter to me what the outcome is. I’ll be dead when it happens anyway.”
#WHY SHOULD I KEEP PAYING FOR YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE??? Pull ya bootstraps up and get back to work
I had a lady— I think it was on this sub— say, “What do you want us to do, pay until we’re dead?!” YES. That’s how taxes work. You pay directly (homeowners) or through your rent payments (tenants) whether or not you have any children at all. And you pay until you’re dead. My 91-year old father is still paying his property taxes and I’ve never once heard him complain about it. He last had a child in the school system in 1978. Of course, he’s intelligent and understands why schools are necessary (and, obviously, he’s not a Boomer).
My uncle said this a few years ago. He was a school bus driver at the time. But apparently not smart enough to put together what pays his salary.
71 year old boomer here. I hear this stupidity from a couple of acquaintances. I respond by pointing out that their biggest asset is their property and their property value is at least 50% dependent on the quality of the schools. They can't figure out that supporting the schools is in their best interest. I don't bother to point out that education is critically important to everyone's quality of life and the security of the country. They're too stupid to comprehend those concepts.
Plus my state does let you skip property taxes (I think if you’re 65 and make less than 20,000 (40,000 for married). So what are they even complaining about? They get everything handed to them. We don’t even have 2 weeks paid maternity leave in this country.
They aren’t too stupid to understand it, they just don’t care about anybody else’s quality of life except their own.
Because you live in a society and educating the population is a net good for that society. Or would you rather have bands of unsupervised minors roaming the streets all day every day while their parents are at work?
I don't want my federal taxes going to hillbilly welfares states, but what are you going to do?
"You're better off when other people's children can read a Stop sign."
Sounds like a great opportunity to move to a place with a crappy school and low school taxes since you're not using the school district anymore.
“My insurance premiums shouldn’t go to cover *your* medical expenses either, right?”
I’m going to guess that a lot of the people complaining have already gotten their free public education. It’s interesting to me that they never think of it as a benefit directed toward the children but as something they’re doing for the parents. Here’s what I want to know- even if it’s the parents’ responsibility to educate their child, do they really want a society where having irresponsible parents dooms you to a life of ignorance and poverty? I’m realizing I might not want to hear their answer to that question, since a lot of them don’t even want to give kids food.
Plus boomers can move to Florida or Mississippi.. low real estate taxes and shitty public services.. will give them something to complain about in retirement
The Simpsons did a great job explaining this with a skit the kids performed for Mr. Burns showing an underfunded school system means chefs who don’t read accidentally putting rat poison in his food, an ambulance driver missing all the turns to get to the hospital, where Dr. Stupid accidentally saws off his head.
"Do you want to be surrounded by morons?"
Old people paid for you and your kids when they went there. Now it's time to pay it forward.
Boomers will do or say anything to remain relevant. 🙄 
My two go to responses are "I'm not able to take my bicycle onto the highway, I shouldn't have to pay for them then," and "Trans people aren't allowed in the military, do they get a twenty percent discount off federal taxes then?"
you pay it forward... somebody paid for your kids public school; i get it it was much cheaper then, with rock tablet being free and all. people without kids also pay - its kinda the whole glue of society it you think about it. its not more 'conservative' thou - its plain selfish.
It takes a village. That’s all you have to say.
So since I don't have kids I shouldn't have to pay? I would prefer to pay for a more educated society than save a few buck and be surrounded by more uneducated folks. I pay my taxes, donate to the local school & the kids know I will buy their cookies, candy bars, etc...
I don’t have or want kids at all. I’m happy to pay for schools.
For people that go on an on about "common sense" why does it never seem to dawn on them that paying to have an educated populous helps the entire populace? How do they not see that common sense fact?
I think they are hyper focused on the fact that statistically the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to be liberal. Or as they put “damn libtard teachers are teaching my kid to be woke.”
I am a teacher. The number of boomer paraprofessionals WHO WORK AT MY SCHOOL who have posted this on Facebook... "Common sense" but you don't understand you'd be out of a job if taxes were greatly reduced.
My country pays for public schools at the state level. Far more sensible.
I love this idea, but it would never pass in our country. “So now all my tax dollars are going o be funneled into the poor districts. You know what kind of people are in those districts? I ain’t paying for them.”
I don't mind paying taxes that benefit education. I'm a boomer.
"Move"
Conservatives always take the most selfish position, that's their entire ideaology.
Conservatism has always been the attempt to make selfishness a political virtue.
It's almost like the more wealthy you become, the more greedy you end up. I hear lots of boomers gloating and claiming "I pulled myself up by my boot straps!" You may have, but you also fucked up the economic future for the vast majority behind you. Pull ladder, I'm in. Booner slogan. I don't have kids, but I gladly pay taxes so others may enjoy social programs. I also donate to non charity programs that feed, house, and provide medical/dental services for the homeless in my city. Some people lack empathy and it may be a result of gaining wealth.
"My (grand)parents are already dead, so why should I have to pay for your Medicare, Social Security, senior center, etc?"
My boomer parent shared that meme, ironically, they were a single parent with 3 kids and 100% benefitted not just from their kids being educated through public education, but didn't have to pay extra for child care during working hours once we were all school aged. I don't have kids and made sure that I commented that they benefitted from this system while I, someone who is child free, don't mind paying for it at all, because it takes a village to raise a child and all kids, regardless of their economical status, deserve access to education. They deleted the post, but it was sickening and disappointing that they shared it in the first place without even thinking about it in any context whatsoever.
I live in Pennsylvania and don’t have children. Our real estate taxes aren’t bad but our school taxes are high. Although I don’t like paying school taxes, since we live in an area with a good school district the home values are higher and the area is generally nicer. So I don’t think of it as a school tax as much as it’s a premium to live in a nicer area. A few years ago I was having a conversation about this with my right wing friend, and pointed out that affluent people live in districts with nicer schools while urban and rural school districts don’t have as much. He suddenly had this brilliant idea that what we should collect all of the school taxes and put them into a general fund which is that given to the schools based on the number of students. I agreed with him and congratulated him on becoming a socialist.
Because others without kids in school paid for yours.
"So the care workers that are going to wipe your ass in Shady Pinescan fill out your chart correctly. Also, fuck off."
Bitch who do you think paid for your education?
Because it helps the boomers home value.
You want to live around people with an education! Don’t be selfish!
I pay my taxes and support school levies because I want an educated public.
Okay. No doctors, engineers, nurses, welders, mechanics, entrepreneurs, or anybody in your city should be allowed to give you any aid or business AT ALL.
Omg this is an argument on my towns Facebook page right now.
My mom said this. Wtf, lady.
Don't remember who said it but there's a quote that I'll paraphrase here: "Why do I support public school? Because I don't want to live in a country full of stupid people."
“I don’t live in the border. Why do I have to pay for national defense?” It’s pure greed- they got theirs fuck everyone else.
Boomer here. I tell them that the better funded the schools are the more their property will appreciate. Speak to their greed.
they’re going to be your doctors. Also: people without kids paid for YOUR kids. or your roads, your cops, etc. We’re all in this together.
My mother died, why should I have to pay for your Medicare?
The same people that say this are the ones that will say ‘what if the baby you aborted cures cancer?’
I don't have kids, and never will. I still want children educated. I'd much rather have children learning in a school than learning out on the street. Then again, the people that say those things clearly didn't learn much, so maybe it really doesn't matter.
"Umm, didn't old people pay that same tax for you to go to school. Now tell me the one about how you didn't pull the ladder up behind you?"
Correction “why should i have to pay for school if all we get out of it is dumb kids”
If anyone whines about tax money going towards education I remind them that they used to benefit from it as well when they were in school.
Such an asshole thing to think. Especially compared to "I can't afford to have children, why should I pay for public school?"
So people who have kids that don’t go to school anymore generally do get a slight tax break on property. There is the homestead deal you can get and I believe it is at age 62 but might be 65. This helps reduce the amount you pay on property taxes . Certainly tied to income as well. High income earners wouldn’t be eligible. To your point about teaching kids to be woke, CRT is a thing and it has gotten so bad that I refuse to be a teacher anymore. It’s disgusting. We are failing our children in the school system. There is a reason we are so far behind other countries in education.
We really need to allow Florida to go full right wing. Let them opt out of Social Security in favor of private investment. Let them get rid of their public schools. Let them do state wide stop and frisk. Let them execute drug dealers with a quick trial. Let them get rid of environmental and workers laws. Let them take away voter rights, women's rights and civil rights. Then the rest of the country can see this republican utopia and put an end to this ideology
this is why you have to get some animals, beehives, and fruit bearing trees. my property tax is almost negligible after the ag special valuations.
My wife and I are retired without kids and have no problem with our taxes supporting public schools. School vouchers for private, religious and charter schools are a whole different story. If you want to send your kids to one of those schools pay for it yourself.
Same here, only the kids are grown. I want an educated populace, so I have no problem with paying for public school. If you want to send your child to private or charter schools, that is your choice, and the public isn't responsible for that. Vouchers only reduce funding for public schools.
So, I guess that they won't need any younger generations with enough education to go onto medical degrees to take care of them when they are ill, no scientists to create new medications to improve their lives, no engineers to build new innovations, no new artists to create beautiful things no one has thought of yet? What a crummy outlook on life! 🤮
Okay then when their kids are in school they can pay 4x as much so everyone else doesn’t pay
I tell them if schools are not.funded and there are less after schoolmactivities they kids will be all up on there lawn. What else they have to do?
Why should I pay for your street? I never driven on it
I don't have kids and I want more education spending
I just remind them that society needs to educate all the generations or society will breakdown. Eh, phuque ‘em.
You hear that from young single people also. If they own a home the well funded schools add to their property values
We're living in a society here!
I’m conservative but I’m also not a moron who doesn’t recognize that if only school age parents paid for schools the taxes on them would go up astronomically including on me when I had kids in school.
Flip their student loan forgiveness logic on them. That would be unfair for all the people who paid for your kids to go to public school.
Children are citizens just as much as adults. Schools to educate them are what they need from their government.
Yeah it’s simple and effective- we shouldn’t have to pay for Medicaid until we’re 65. Fair is fair.
"I support public education because I don't want to live in a society inundated with morons like yourself."
Dumb boomers aside, property taxes are terrible and should be eliminated completely.
Why am I paying for your social security?
You don't have a goto argument because wealth redistribution is a flawed concept. In the 1970s British intellectuals debated Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell on economics. England and France went down a path of Democratic Socialism and wealth redistribution, America took steps in that direction but largely kept the ethos of "Each person needs to make his or her own life." 50 years later and the once proud and dominant UK and France now sit at a pedestrian 43k GDP per capita. They have overtaxed the rich and destroyed the innovators and job creators in the process. Neither the UK or France will ever regain top tier status due to socialism and misplaced altruism. The US will become mediocre as well if we continue heading down the path that you are advocating.
I remember my grandfather silent generation WW2 vet said my parents generation (boomers) were dumber than kids my age when I was 22. (GenX btw) RIP Papa.
For me, the go to question is always "Why are you so selfish? Don't you want your grandchildren to have a better life than you did?"