How To Balance The Budget On The Backs Of The Poor

$38 Trillion in Debt, and They’re Coming for Our Social Security? We Could’ve Done Better Ourselves.

As average Americans, we’re fed up. The U.S. national debt just hit $38 trillion—up $1 trillion in two months. That’s $500 billion a month, $23 billion a day, or $114,000 per household.

Politicians, especially the MAGA crowd, keep crowing about “saving taxpayers money” and “paying down the debt.” But the 2025 deficit is $1.8 trillion, with debt up $2.1 trillion in a year. Savings? Give us a break. They’re firing federal workers, slashing programs we need, and threatening Social Security and Medicare—benefits we’ve paid for our whole lives. Meanwhile, the 1% get richer, and we’re blowing billions on jets and wars.

To top it off, imagine if we’d invested our Social Security contributions ourselves—most of us could’ve beaten the system’s measly returns. This isn’t just frustrating; it’s a rigged game.

We Paid In—Now They Call It an “Entitlement”

Social Security and Medicare aren’t handouts. We pay 6.2% of every paycheck for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare—about $500,000 over a 40-year career for the average worker earning $60,000 a year. We’re promised $1.5–2 million in benefits for retirement and healthcare, but the system’s shaky.

Social Security’s trust fund is set to run dry by 2035, and Medicare’s not far behind in 2036. Why? Too few workers (2.8 per retiree now vs. 5 in 1960) and rising costs.

What If We’d Invested It Ourselves?

Here’s the kicker: what if we’d taken that 6.2%—say, $3,720 a year for a $60,000 earner—and invested it wisely instead?

If we’d put that $3,720 annually into a low-cost S&P 500 index fund from 1985 to 2025 (40 years), assuming a historical 7% real return after inflation (10% nominal minus 3% inflation), we’d have about $1.1 million by retirement (age 65). That’s with compound interest, no fancy trading—just steady investing most of us could manage.

Compare that to Social Security: the average retiree gets $1,900/month, or about $684,000 total for 30 years (age 65–95). Our private account could nearly double that, and we’d control it—no politicians meddling.

Even a conservative 5% return (bonds or mixed funds) would yield $600,000—still close to Social Security’s payout but without the risk of cuts or insolvency. The catch? Most of us don’t have the discipline or extra cash to invest like that when bills pile up, and the government’s system forces us to “save.” Still, it’s maddening to think we could’ve done better if the system wasn’t designed to lock us in.

The Real Budget Busters

While we’re stuck with Social Security’s 1–2% effective return, the real budget busters skate free. Defense spending is $895 billion in 2025—12% of the $7.27 trillion budget, half of all discretionary spending.

That’s $428 million for one F-35 jet, $13 billion for an aircraft carrier, $50 billion for wars in Ukraine and elsewhere, and $60 billion for 800 overseas bases. Defense contractors like Lockheed and Boeing rake in $20 billion in profits while we pay the tab. The Government Accountability Office flags 20% of that budget ($180 billion) as waste—enough to fund SNAP (food stamps, $163 billion for 42 million of us) for a year. But instead of cutting Pentagon pork, they’re eyeing our Social Security checks.

The 1% Keep Winning

Then there’s the 1%, living like royalty. The 2017 tax cuts handed them $1.9 trillion over a decade, with 60% of benefits to the top 10% and 25% to the top 1%. A billionaire saves $40 million a year while our taxes don’t budge.

Loopholes like carried interest let hedge fund managers pay 20% tax instead of 37%, costing $50 billion a year. The richest 1% hold $50 trillion in wealth, but their unrealized stock gains? Untaxed. A 2% wealth tax could raise $100 billion annually—enough to fund SNAP six times or shore up Social Security’s trust fund. Instead, we’re told our benefits—earned through decades of payroll taxes—are the problem.

Broken System, Broken Promises

The debt’s at $38 trillion because the system’s broken. Interest payments eat $950 billion (13% of the budget), and every $1 trillion borrowed adds $40 billion a year in costs. We collect $5.4 trillion in taxes but spend $7.27 trillion.

That $1.8 trillion deficit isn’t from our Social Security or Medicare ($1.5 trillion and $900 billion, 33% of the budget). It’s from tax cuts for the rich and defense bloat. Trump’s “savings”—firing feds, cutting agencies—might save $10–20 billion a year. That’s 1% of the deficit. Chump change.

We Could’ve Done Better

This hits us hard. We’ve paid into Social Security and Medicare expecting them to be there when we’re old or sick. We could’ve invested that money ourselves and likely come out ahead, but the system traps us while billionaires hide $175 billion offshore and the Pentagon buys another $13 billion carrier.

Want to fix the debt? Tax the ultra-rich. Audit defense waste. Stop pretending our earned benefits—or our potential to invest smarter—are the issue. We’re the ones working, paying taxes, and keeping this country going—not the 1% or the war machine.

Who else is tired of this rigged system?

Notes on the Investment Angle:
Assumptions: The $1.1M figure assumes a $60,000 salary (near the U.S. median), 6.2% ($3,720/year) invested annually from 1985–2025, with a 7% real return (S&P 500 average, per historical data). A 5% return (bonds/mixed funds) yields $600K. These are simplified—most Americans can’t invest all 6.2% due to living costs, and market risk isn’t zero.

Why Social Security lags: Its pay-as-you-go model (current workers fund current retirees) yields 1–2% effective returns vs. market’s 7%. Privatization (like Chile’s model) has been pitched but risks market crashes wiping out savings and leaves non-investors vulnerable.

Data sources: CBO (June 2025), Treasury reports, SSA projections, and historical S&P 500 returns (e.g., NYU Stern data).