U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders warned late Monday that billionaire Elon Musk’s new call for up to $700 billion in cuts to mandatory federal spending is an alarming step in the direction of Social Security privatization, a longstanding—and deeply unpopular—goal of right-wing politicians and corporate-funded think tanks.

Musk, who is spearheading a large-scale assault on federal agencies and workers, told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Monday that “waste and fraud” in “entitlement spending”—a category that includes Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—is “the big one to eliminate,” estimating that up to $700 billion could be cut from such programs.

  • IninewCrow
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    20 hours ago

    Privatize Social Security? … that sounds like an oxymoron - ‘An oxymoron is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposite meanings within a word or in a phrase that is a self-contradiction.’

    Think about it … let’s pay a private company a fee to support people who need some social assistance … basically, let’s pay a rich guy to pay some of their money we give them to give to the poor and allow the rich guy to monetize and profit from this system as much as possible. What the hell do you think is going to happen?

    The American model of using public tax resources … let’s pay rich people to distribute our taxes … let’s pay a middle man for no reason other than to profit to handle how public money should be spent

    • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Privatized social security is pensions. What happened to pensions?

      googles Oh. Oh no.

    • blakenong@lemmings.world
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      19 hours ago

      They’re just going to close down social security. Anyone who wants it can buy it like insurance, but you better pay in now or by the time you’re old you won’t get anything. Oh, you’re old? Ahhh. Die I guess?

      That’s the new America. Don’t get too excited Canada, you’re next. (Unfortunately)

    • seeigel@feddit.org
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      18 hours ago

      It doesn’t have to be a private company. Why don’t workers privatize social security themselves and take the government and thus the influence of the billionaires out of the loop?

      Create a cooperative that is owned by all working citizens who want to participate. There don’t have to be profits.

      • earphone843@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        Because humans suck and it won’t be long before that system is abused by people who will gladly destroy others for personal gain.

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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        15 hours ago

        Except there is a huge boomer population, with gen x on the back burner, that is already depending on it. Definitely, that should be an added option.

        My only worry would be that the greeds would somehow get a hold of that too. They don’t like to see others content with having a source of income they can’t control.