Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Trump Accounts for children born from 2025-28 could open the door to Americans paying their payroll taxes into personal accounts invested in the stock market instead of to the federal government, which has borrowed from the Social Security trust fund for years. Cruz suggested at a panel discussion at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Los Angeles earlier this week that Trump Accounts could pave the way to transforming Social Security, which faces a $230 billion cash shortfall in 2026. “Here’s the dirty little secret: Trump Accounts are Social Security personal accounts,” Cruz said, arguing that the establishment of Trump Accounts represents an important conservative victory in taking a step toward privatization of Social Security, something that former President George W. Bush attempted but failed to do during his second term. “How did we get it done? You remember George W. Bush tried this in his second term and, sadly, Congress ran for the hills in a display of extraordinary cowardice. How did we get it done this time? It’s because we gave the money to babies so the old people didn’t get p‑‑‑ed,” Cruz said. “But babies grow up,” he pointed out. “That little girl who is born this year, she’s going to be 70, and the math is if you contribute regularly to it, by the time she’s 18, she’ll have $170,000 in that account. By the time she’s 35, she’ll have $700,000 in that account,” Cruz added. “This will become Social Security personal accounts,” he predicted.
I love the “it’ll be 170k in account after 18 years of you contribute to it.”. Just ran that math through a compounding interest calculator and you’d need to contribute 300 bucks a month to the account on top of 10% yearly returns to get to 170k after 18 year. Over half of Americans say they don’t have 500 bucks in the back ain’t no one throwing 300 bucks a child into an account.
So almost all or those accounts are going to have less than 6 grand in them and Republicans will blame poor people for not managing their non-existent money better.
Edit: just did 700k at 35 and that came out to only 200 bucks a month over the full 35 years but if you take the 170k were assuming this 18 year old has and don’t touch it at 10% you end up with 860k at 35. Ted Cruz needs to do better math.
Life can change a lot over that 18 years. I started a college savings account for my daughter. At the time my wife was working and making nearly as much as me, so we had some extra income. 3 years later, she’s out of a job, our house payment doubled because we had to move. These people live in a crazy world, where they believe everyone has 50% of their income not allocated to the absolute essentials. Those of us who are lucky are just barely getting by, many are already under water.
They don’t live in a crazy world. They know everyone’s fucked. They don’t care. They want to profit off it. They’re taking your money for themselves. They know people won’t do anything.
They’re just desperate to keep people investing into the system.
They want steady, never ending capital injection into the market, people paying zero attention and just using an index.
That makes it easy for them to grift with insider trading.
If only the wealthy bought stocks, who would they make money off of?
Fuck you FUCK NO
Cruz should be out in a wood chipper
“Aaaand your future’s gone.”
Yet we allow them to keep breathing. So we clearly don’t care that much.
Americans paying their payroll taxes into personal accounts invested in the stock market
“That little girl who is born this year, she’s going to be 70, and the math is if you contribute regularly to it, by the time she’s 18, she’ll have $170,000 in that account
Let’s say this girl starts working at 14, which is unlikely. Dipshit Ted Cruz thinks she’s going to contribute enough funds in 4 years (plus investment returns) to total 170,000? Give me the name of the trader in charge of that account!
Aside from that, in some parts of the country, $120k per year is the financial independence income floor. In 18 years, it’s going to be WAY over 170k.
I remember when I was young, I calculated that if I saved a certain reasonable amount per year, I’d be a millionaire by the time I was 55. And I was right — it was just enough to buy a house that would have sold for $20k when I was young, leaving me in debt and with minimal monthly liquid cash.
Either you made a lot of typos, or you think 14+4=70…
Even then, these “investment accounts” are supposed to start at birth, so even if your math was right, still wildly off.
Like, it’s still a grift, but I have no idea where you got those numbers
No typos. Go back and read the quotes.
He says this is supposed to be individual and based on payroll taxes. You don’t have payroll taxes until you are on the payroll.
You might not be right, but you’re confident, which is something…
How did we get it done this time? It’s because we gave the money to babies so the old people didn’t get p‑‑‑ed,” Cruz said.
"But babies grow up,” he pointed out.
“That little girl who is born this year, she’s going to be 70, and the math is if you contribute regularly to it, by the time she’s 18, she’ll have $170,000 in that account. By the time she’s 35, she’ll have $700,000 in that account,” Cruz added.
Fair warning, with a tone like that I almost didn’t bother helping you.
I legitimately didn’t read the article first tho, because I’ve heard about this months ago and remember things.
“by the time she’s 18, she’ll have $170,000”
That’s the quote, dude. She could conceivably start working at 14. So this hypothetical girl is gonna have to contribute a LOT in 4 years, 14+4 being 18, in order to hit that hypothetical $170,000 at age 18.
It’s because we gave the money to babies so the old people didn’t get p‑‑‑ed,” Cruz said.
Literally the entire point the entire conversation of “trump accounts” is they were started at birth…
She is not contributing regularly to it before she is 14, her parents are
Rather than invest in your own retirement (because you know it won’t happen) they want parents to start in eatment accounts for their children at birth and save for their retirement.
How the fuck can people both not remember this from previous news and not be able to figure it out from the context? One or the other should work for anyone, hell everyone should be able to do both, this is not difficult.
I keep hearing about the literacy crisis, is this that?
Quick edit:
Like, not just that you misunderstood it, but that presumably at least 5 other people did…
I legitimately thought just quoting the context would make it obvious, but seemingly no one got it because I didn’t explicitly type it out …
It’s just fucking depressing man
She is not contributing regularly to it before she is 14, her parents are
I think, and I’m not the op so this is conjecture, the point is/was that (most) parents are already broke, and most adults are as well. Someone else did the math and at a 10% yearly compounding it would still take $300/mo or more to hit that hypothetical $170k.
With everything else spiking in cost, broke people aren’t going to magically have $300 extra for their kids’ “trump accounts” to hit these targets.
I keep hearing about the literacy crisis, is this it?
Friend, I think part of the attitude of response you got was the tone you gave out.
It’s just fucking depressing man
Yeah, this is where I’d put the “first time?” meme. Sorry dude.
How the actual fuck do you think I’m the one that needs anything explained?
Every single comment you’ve been wrong…
I’m sorry, I can’t deal with this shit, like I said, it’s too frustrating and waaaaay too depressing.
I hope someone with more patience helps, if not, Reading Rainbow is still effective, and that way personality won’t negatively effect how long a helper hangs out with you.
I will never undersatnd that amount of cognitive dissonance that MAGA voters have. If there’s one thing the majority of Americans agree on it’s that corporations are ruining lives yet they cheer whenever things like this happen. I remember when the whole thing with Luigi happened and even MAGA had the same mindset as everyone else.
If there’s one thing the majority of Americans agree on it’s that corporations are ruining lives
I’m not a Trumper, but I live in deep Red MAGA country. People celebrated when Amazon opened a warehouse here, praising them for bringing jobs to the area. They see Amazon as improving their lives, since they can get a bigger paycheck now and can afford to live. When you’re working at McDonald’s for $8.25/hr, and Amazon shows up offering $21/hr, that is a huge improvement. Telling these folks that Amazon is ruining their lives will get you laughed out of town.
The MAGA folks don’t live in the same world you do. As soon as you accept that, you will understand them better.
Before everyone gets an immediate aversion to this, have a look at the australian superannuatkon system. It requires employers to contribute 12% (from july 1st, has ramped up over time) to a similar style account for every employee.
The idea is that eceryone has a pension and over time there is less need for social security. The problem is, of course that the current workers pay taxes to support social security they will never get. However, many western countries have obkigations they wont be able to meet for an aging population when everyone keeps voring for lower taxes.
Its not perfect, but its not completely unreqsonabke either. The first workers to have it for most of theor career are now reriring. Many, quite comfortably. It was quite a shock for me when i went the usa and see older people at walmart and mcdonalds working, as they needed to.
Here, they volunteer at community organisations if they wish to be active in that way. They golf, or fish or travel if they dont. They certainly dont do wage slave jobs to pay the bills and ger medicine.
