Shownotes
Today, we dive into the pressing issue of Social Security, a topic that’s moving like molasses through our news cycle but has serious implications for millions of Americans. Our discussion centers around a recent alarming report from the Social Security Administration revealing that without action from Congress, benefits for millions could face a 20% cut by 2032. We take a moment to reflect on the life of my grandmother, Ms. Rose, who navigated the complexities of Social Security with grit and determination, highlighting the generational promises that are now at risk. As we unpack these concerns, we also explore the broader economic landscape, characterized by a workforce trapped in jobs they dislike due to uncertainty and fear of change. So, stick around as we unravel the tangled web of politics, economics, and the very real stakes for families looking to secure their futures.
Takeaways:
- In a world where news moves quickly, we need to slow down and reflect on key issues that affect us all.
- Social Security is in serious trouble, with potential cuts looming for millions of Americans if Congress doesn't act soon.
- The struggles of our grandparents, like Ms. Rose, remind us of the importance of securing a stable future for all generations.
- Workplace dissatisfaction is rising, yet many stay in jobs they hate due to economic fears and uncertainty in the job market.
- Burnout is prevalent, but the quits rate remains low, indicating a troubling trend in worker confidence and job satisfaction.
- Fear of economic instability is paralyzing our culture, preventing many from taking action to improve their situations and futures.
Links referenced in this episode:
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcripts
News moves pretty fast.
Speaker A:If you don't stop and think about it, you're gonna miss it.
Speaker B:That's why James A.
Speaker A:Brown slows down the news.
Speaker A:He gets rid of all the political jerseys, replacing partisan bickering with common sense.
Speaker A:No bumper stickers or shouting signs here, just better questions about America.
Speaker B:This is the James A.
Speaker A:Brown program.
Speaker C:Oh, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, boys and girls, hello and welcome to the James A.
Speaker C:Brown program.
Speaker C:You could be anywhere in the world, but you're here with me, and I am grateful for that.
Speaker C:We've got a great show for you today, and it all starts with our top line.
Speaker A:The top line.
Speaker C:Today's top line is my grandma.
Speaker C:I've been thinking about her a lot these days, and her name was Ms. Rose or Melrose Presley.
Speaker C: orn in rural Georgia in about: Speaker C: I think it's: Speaker C:She was one of 13 kids, many of which did not survive childhood.
Speaker C:And she moved to Florida and lived a lot of her.
Speaker C:Her adult life.
Speaker C:And like many young black people of that time, she migrated north after the Great Depression.
Speaker C:In World War II, she worked in a psych center that.
Speaker C:Right now the politicians in my area are working to turn that site, which is condemned, into housing or something of some sort of.
Speaker C:She bought a little house and worked for many years.
Speaker C:And as my mother would say, long before I ever was thought of, she.
Speaker C:She retired.
Speaker C:She had six children of her own, and they had children, and I was one of those children.
Speaker C:She wasn't a wealthy woman.
Speaker C:She was a woman who.
Speaker C:Who got by and she slid into retirement while her kids had kids.
Speaker C:And those kids started to have kids.
Speaker C:And that was the Melrose that I knew, a tiny powerhouse that Everybody knew as Ms. Rose, everybody in the neighborhood.
Speaker C:Ms. Rose got by in the 80s and 90s by selling Social Security, by selling Kool Aid, frozen Kool Aid and popcorn.
Speaker C:And on Social Security, that's what she did.
Speaker C:She cashed checks and she sold little things on the side.
Speaker C:She made hats.
Speaker C:She knit quilts.
Speaker C:She did what she could.
Speaker C:I grew up a large chunk of my childhood next to Ms. Rose, watching her work.
Speaker C:She enlisted me in a lot of unpaid work, slinging that frozen Kool Aid in that popcorn as she just got by.
Speaker C:Now, the Miss Roses of your lives, your mother, your grandmother, your great grandmother, or maybe even you, your grandpa or your father.
Speaker C:We're letting those people down, or at least our politicians are.
Speaker C:Or at least that's what the Social Security Administration say.
Speaker C:They sent out a letter, at least the trustees of the Social Security Administration did, saying, and I quote from, from the New York Times, without a strategy from Congress to bolster the program, it will be necessary to reduce the benefits for millions of Americans in just over six years.
Speaker C:And if you're like me, this just floated by your timeline, and nobody noticed.
Speaker C:And why did no one notice?
Speaker C:Why?
Speaker C:Well, you've probably heard this not once, not twice, not a dozen times, maybe dozens of times.
Speaker C:So much so that it's become a joke that most of us.
Speaker C:If you're like me, in your 40s, you don't expect to have 40 years of Social Security like my grandma did.
Speaker C:You don't expect to be supported by Social Security.
Speaker C:You don't expect to eke by on it like she did.
Speaker C:That promise that we made to those folks, you don't even expect that.
Speaker C:And this week, the Social Security Administration told America that, you know What?
Speaker C:Expect a 20% cut.
Speaker C:And we didn't even notice.
Speaker C:That's why I decided to start doing a program like this, Because as I say, at the top of every show, news moves really fast, and things like this just fly by, and we don't even consider the consequences of such things.
Speaker C:Miss Rose, my grandmother could barely get by on what she received.
Speaker C:Ms. Rose had multiple side hustles just to get by on what she received.
Speaker C:And we're going to take away 20% unless we depend on Congress to figure things out.
Speaker C:Hmm.
Speaker C:Congress.
Speaker C:I can't think of a better group of people to defend on to.
Speaker C:To actually come to a compromise, to.
Speaker C:To actually fix a system.
Speaker C:Do you believe that they can do this?
Speaker C:I don't.
Speaker C:Do you believe that they actually have the fortitude to actually come together and cobble out something that's not cockamamie and.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And insane?
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:So I'm left to think about Ms. Rose and the Ms.
Speaker C:Roses in all our lives, who will be likely left out in the cold or in a strange new system that the most unreliable body in America will put together.
Speaker C:I don't expect much from Congress, but I do.
Speaker C:I do expect them to at least care about the basics, the basics of our families and friends.
Speaker C:And these days, I think that that might even be asking too much of them.
Speaker C:I don't think we're fixing this anytime soon.
Speaker C:More on this in a moment.
Speaker C:This is James A.
Speaker C:Brown program.
Speaker C:Stay with me.
Speaker B:Want to talk to James?
Speaker A:Call her.
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Speaker C:Hello, and welcome to the James A.
Speaker C:Brown Show.
Speaker C:Thanks for being me.
Speaker C:With me.
Speaker C: just a few years in the early: Speaker C:We'll go into a few of those details.
Speaker C: rement fund will run short in: Speaker C:Their projection depletion date for the old Age and survivors insurance fund that we all contribute to in every paycheck has moved up three months earlier than last year's estimate.
Speaker C:And that's, that's just now it's probably going to move up again, I bet.
Speaker C:And that our payroll income tax as currently constituted will only cover 78% of the scheduled benefits at this point.
Speaker C:And that's going to lead to an automatic 22% cut under the current law unless Congress acts before that line.
Speaker C:That affect more than 68 million Americans who receive Social Security.
Speaker C:Outside analysts cited in Fortune estimate that the average monthly reduction could approach $500.
Speaker C:500 Bucks.
Speaker C:Now, 500 bucks isn't a ton of money, but it's not a little bit of money either.
Speaker C:500 Bucks is, I mean, I mean, if you're, if you live in my part of the world, I live in the Northeast, 500 bucks could be your electric bill for a month.
Speaker C:500 Bucks could be your electric and your car bill, car insurance for sure.
Speaker C:Add inflation, add food, 500 bucks.
Speaker C:Losing 500 bucks could force us into making some truly crushing choices if we don't act now, if we don't consider, If we don't have some foresight and look forward.
Speaker C:Instead of fighting every war in a trench warfare kind of perspective that swallows up our politics.
Speaker C:When I think about how we approach things in our.
Speaker C:And when I think of how we approach things politically in this country, there is no long arc that we consider.
Speaker C:There is no grand idea we can't afford to.
Speaker C:And you know, part of that is the genius of our setup, right?
Speaker C:Our congressional members are up every two years, so they're running for reelection really every other year.
Speaker C:Our senators are in office every six years.
Speaker C:And so they're running for election every five years.
Speaker C:And presidents are running for reelection, it seems, every two years.
Speaker C:So you can't get too set in your ways.
Speaker C:So there are some positives to having.
Speaker C:Upheaval in our system.
Speaker C:We're not a monarchy.
Speaker C:We're not a dictatorship.
Speaker C:But the downside is that we can't have.
Speaker C:We've gotten so much upheaval at this point that we cannot concentrate and think through the biggest challenges of our day.
Speaker C:It's getting harder to pass budgets.
Speaker C:It's getting harder to make the big choices that are needed.
Speaker C:I mean, that's why the filibuster is probably going to go away.
Speaker C:Whether the Republicans do it or the Democrats do it, it's going to go away because these folks are not going to be able to.
Speaker C:They know that compromise is, is ending or over.
Speaker C:That we're all but done with it.
Speaker C:As sad as that is to say, In a world where there is no compromise, where there is no forward thinking, what we end up is in this circular system where the undergirding foundations of the system, of the.
Speaker C:Existing structures start to fail.
Speaker C:And I think that's part of what we're seeing here as we start to see the death throes of Social Security year after year, fall apart.
Speaker C:This is the Daily Note.
Speaker C:JAMES A.
Speaker C:Brown program.
Speaker C:Thanks for joining me.
Speaker C:Stay with me.
Speaker D:The land M and it's too late to turn around.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:Want to talk to James?
Speaker A:Call or text him.
Speaker A: -: Speaker A:Leave your name.
Speaker A:We might have you on the show.
Speaker B:This is the James A.
Speaker A:Brown Program.
Speaker C:Hello and welcome back to the James A.
Speaker C:Brown Program.
Speaker C:I, of course, am James A.
Speaker C:Brown.
Speaker C:Thanks for joining me.
Speaker C:You check out my [email protected] that's jamesabrown.net.
Speaker C:We spent the first half of the program discussing Social Security and it reminded me of some other stories that I've run into in the last couple of days.
Speaker C:Because as I mentioned, people my age, I'm, I'm 42.
Speaker C:We've come to joke that we know that Social Security won't be there when our number is called.
Speaker C:When I am 67, 70 or whatever the age will be.
Speaker C:When I'm retired or thinking about retiring, I don't expect Social Security.
Speaker C:I gotta come up with a plan B.
Speaker C:So I think that this story as I, as I saw it, reflects where a lot of us are right now.
Speaker C:This is according to the America center.
Speaker C: In a June: Speaker C:Against that backdrop, inflation accelerating back to 4.2% narrows the real wage buffer.
Speaker C:So we, we may be making a little bit more, but if everything costs a little bit more, are we really making a little bit more?
Speaker C:Not really.
Speaker C:While at the same time nobody's quitting.
Speaker C:That's it quits.
Speaker C:The quits rate has slowed dramatically.
Speaker C:You have to be a crazy person like myself in order to quit.
Speaker C:So you end up with this sort of strange brew of all these people who don't want to be in their jobs because they don't like their jobs, staying in their jobs because they feel that they can't afford to leave their jobs because they fear that there might not be anything on the other side of the rainbow, whether it's AI eating all the rest of the workplace.
Speaker C:You know Goldman Sachs putting out that report a couple months ago saying that AI is eating about 16,000 net jobs every month, Or this is Americus say that there's this weird uneven labor demand.
Speaker C:So you have a bunch of people who don't want to be in their jobs, who are staying in their jobs, you have employers that are looking for every reason to cut employees from their jobs.
Speaker C:And you end up with this weird, strange brew of a workplace that no one wants to be in and everyone is uncomfortable in.
Speaker C:And I think, honestly, it feels connected to this larger story about the end of the rainbow.
Speaker C:If you look at your parents or grandparents, if you look at things like Social Security, if you look at things like the war in Iran, if you look at things like the wider picture economically and you feel like, man, I can't afford to risk anything right now, You're going to grin and bear it and you're going to be miserable.
Speaker C:And if you're going to grin and bear it and be miserable, The entire circumstance, the entire environment is going to get worse.
Speaker C:It's usually not worth it, at least from my perspective.
Speaker C:At the same time, you end up with other strange circumstance.
Speaker C:Another story I came upon.
Speaker C:Is that this is from a couple months ago, the 6th Circuit sanctioned two attorneys who submitted briefs containing more than 2,000 fake citations in misrepresentations produced by AI Research Tools.
Speaker C:The attorney was ordered to pay for $15,000 to the court registry impunitive sanctions plus reimburse the opposing counsel's FEES.
Speaker C: A separate February: Speaker C:So, so what you're having is, is these folks who are increasingly unhappy with their circumstance in their jobs and what they're doing, who feel like they can't leave because of all the economic uncertainty, who see these new shiny tools, often encouraged to use these new shiny tools, using these new shiny tools, not wanting to be in these circumstances that they're in now in many, many ways, and this is just one of those ways, Using them and increasingly being lazy about it.
Speaker C:I think this is one of these things that we're going to see more and more.
Speaker C:I think we're going to see it trickle down through our society that if there is no, if there is no way out to an environment you want to be in, to an environment that feels right for you and your career and feels economically viable for your life, what's going to end up happening is we're going to, we're going to quietly quit.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:You know, to use an overused term, and we're going to moonwalk through it.
Speaker C:It's, we're in a strange place, people.
Speaker C:I, I suggest you check out this article.
Speaker C:We'll have them on jamesabrown.net this is the James A.
Speaker C:Brown Show.
Speaker C:Sing with me.
Speaker D:Sad and broken melody we back and write a brand new song I used to always drift from place to place not knowing where I'll stay.
Speaker C:Hello and welcome back to the James A.
Speaker C:Brown Program.
Speaker C:Thanks for joining me.
Speaker C:You check out my [email protected] that's jamesabrown.net.
Speaker C:And I want to close with another interesting story that I saw about economic insecurity and jobs and the weirdness of our economy right now.
Speaker C:Burnout mentions and workplace reviews are up roughly 65% in a single year.
Speaker C:But the people who are burnt out aren't quitting.
Speaker C:They're staying.
Speaker C:The quits rate, the single best proxy for worker confidence, actually dropped 1.9%, tying cycle lows.
Speaker C:And only 43% of American workers are looking for jobs right now, down from 93% in about a year ago.
Speaker C:The Fed is calling it a low hire, low fire economy.
Speaker C:Now, If everybody's dissatisfied with where they are economically, if everybody is unhappy with what is going on with their life, if everybody hates their boss in where they work, in the environments they're in, what do you think is where do you think that frustration is going to end up?
Speaker C:I'm serious.
Speaker C:I, You know, in that same story, they said that 53% of people pause their job search entirely to protect their mental health.
Speaker C:Well, I would argue that staying in a job you hate probably makes your mental health worse.
Speaker C:And I would argue that it probably makes your home life worse.
Speaker C:It probably makes your friend's life worse, probably makes your relationship with your kids worse, Probably leads to things like binge eating and abusive of drugs and alcohol.
Speaker C:I know those are down.
Speaker C:You know, in the larger, in the grander scale of the American world, we'll go into that in a future episode.
Speaker C:And it's got to be frustrating as this, As this article describes that about half of people have not heard from an employer who's applied in the last year.
Speaker C:Half frustrating.
Speaker C:Incredibly frustrating.
Speaker C:I get it.
Speaker C:It's incredibly frustrating.
Speaker C:But giving up hope, boy, there's consequences that comes with that, too.
Speaker C:Crushing consequences that come with that.
Speaker C:And I think that's a larger theme through everything that we've discussed in this hour.
Speaker C:Ducking larger consequences leads us to dark places.
Speaker C:We have to deal with these issues, whether it's, whether it's pissing off older voters and trying to adjust Social Security benefits so that, so that they, so that they don't run out or it's raising taxes.
Speaker C:So that, so that we don't have, you know, our parents knocking on the door of older people, of their children to support them.
Speaker C:You know, another article I saw in recent weeks said that two out of three people fear running out of money more than died from the annual retirement study from the alliance center, especially among Gen X.
Speaker C:So people just a little bit older than me, mostly in their 50s and 60s now, no doubt, no doubt they see things like this.
Speaker C:They see things like this and they know that the politicians of now and the politicians of the last 20, 30 years have, have kicked the ball, the can down the road.
Speaker C:They've avoided dealing with the hard issues.
Speaker C:They've avoided dealing with the problems.
Speaker C:They've chased the vote.
Speaker C:And haven't dealt with the problem.
Speaker C:Same thing with work.
Speaker C:If your work is driving you nuts, Figure out how to improve your resume.
Speaker C:Whether it's going back to school, whether it's hiring someone to help you with your resume, or seeking out a free resource.
Speaker C:There's plenty of them elsewhere.
Speaker C:Improving things, moving forward.
Speaker C:Whatever you do, do not let it eat you alive.
Speaker C:That's what our government's doing.
Speaker C:Don't let it happen to you.
Speaker C:There's this larger thing that scares me is that all of this fear has allowed chunks of our culture to be paralyzed.
Speaker C:For me, fear spurs action, but for large chunks of our culture, fear paralyzes.
Speaker C:That's not me.
Speaker C:And I think that's bad for society.
Speaker C:And I would love, love to hear what you think.
Speaker C:Let me know.
Speaker C:Send me an email at james the dailynote.net you know, let me know what you think anywhere at JamesBrownTV.
Speaker C:I think it's time we take action.
Speaker C:Don't let these things swallow us alive.
Speaker C:This is the James A.
Speaker C:Brown program.
Speaker C:On that note, I'm James A.
Speaker C:Brown and as always, all be well,.
Speaker A:Slowing down the news.
Speaker D:Feels like I.
