**The Lie of Social Security Insolvency: Why They Say It’s Broke—And Why That’s a Choice, Not a Fact They’ve been telling us for years that Social Security is going broke. Not “under strain.” Not “in need of reform.” Broke. Insolvent. Collapsing. It’s a powerful word, isn’t it? It makes you picture a dried-up bank vault. A government out of money. And a generation of aging Americans left to fend for themselves because “the math just didn’t work.” But here’s the truth: it’s a lie. Or more precisely—a carefully constructed myth used to justify inaction, fear, and generational betrayal. Social Security isn’t broke. It can’t go broke. Not in a country that issues its own currency. *Yes, It Used to Work Differently Let’s be clear: Before 1971, this wasn’t entirely false. Back when we were on the gold standard—or even under Bretton Woods—the U.S. government was genuinely constrained by how many dollars were in circulation, because those dollars were tied to gold reserves. In that system, the federal government had to “collect” money through taxes or bond sales before it could spend. So yes, in a mechanical sense, your payroll taxes really did “fund” Social Security. But that era is over. In 1971, Nixon took us off the gold standard completely. Since then, the U.S. has operated on a fiat currency—meaning the government creates money as needed, without any physical backing. We’re not digging coins out of the ground. We’re crediting digital ledgers in real time. The only real limits now are inflation and political will. *Your Taxes Don’t Fund Social Security Anymore Under a fiat system, Congress doesn’t need to wait on tax revenue before it spends. It authorizes spending, and the Treasury credits bank accounts. That’s it. Taxes still exist—but now they serve a different purpose: To manage inflation, redistribute wealth, and maintain the illusion that government spending is constrained by what you “put in.” That’s the game. They want you to believe that what you pay in is what you’ll get out. That it’s a vault. A retirement account. A deal. But it’s not. It’s a promise. One the government can always keep—if it chooses to. *So Why the Fear Campaign? Because Social Security isn’t a war. It isn’t a bank. It isn’t a lobbyist’s playground. It’s a lifeline. A public guarantee. A declaration that even in old age, even after decades of labor, you are still owed dignity. That promise terrifies the people who believe only markets should decide your worth. They call it unsustainable. They call it socialism. They call it a burden on the young. But what they never call it is what it truly is: Proof that government, when used properly, can serve its people. *What They Don’t Want You to Ask If we can fund Social Security at the stroke of a pen, why don’t we? Why are we still pretending there’s a “trust fund” that can run dry, as if America’s economy is a family checkbook? Why do we scare younger generations into thinking they’ll never see a penny of what they’ve “paid into”? It’s because they need the program to feel fragile. So they can chip away at it. So they can raise the retirement age. So they can funnel more of your life into work, and more of your savings into Wall Street. But here’s the truth: Social Security is only under threat when politicians choose not to fund it. Not because they can’t—but because they won’t. *The Real Cost The real danger isn’t insolvency. It’s moral insolvency. Because the moment we accept the lie that our government can’t afford to protect its own elders—the moment we stop defending a program that has lifted millions out of poverty—is the moment we admit we’re no longer a society, just a collection of consumers waiting for the next collapse. We’re better than that. We have to be. If we can create trillions for war and speculation, we can fund dignity. And if we don’t—it’s not because we can’t. It’s because they wouldn’t. ~CA