Before the Immigrants Take it All

I don't usually recount personal stories here on the blog, because I try to keep my real life and my blog persona separate. You might have an image of me--cool. I mostly tell the truth on myself, when I do talk about myself.  But today (of all days) there was an exchange that left me a little disconcerted, because it was entirely offhand. It was a conversation an older lady had with a slightly-less older lady in the elevator in my workplace.

I'm outspoken enough online--that much you might have noticed. I try to keep civil with folks I disagree with, but I find it easier to link to bolster my argument than just state it, because people believe what they believe for reasons. Maybe they just don't drink from the same wells I do. I don't know how they get their ideas. I want to believe examples or published data help, even if some studies and published data have told me, they don't, necessarily.

And work is a different thing than any other kind of interaction--if I don't know a co-worker from my outfit well enough to know how they will take me, I know I have no reason to attempt a conversation, let alone try out a correction of my elders. 

But this lady said something so ignorant I kind of did not know where to start. She replied to a question about when she was retiring with "I have to start taking my Social Security before the immigrants take it all."

This person had no fucking idea how anything the hell worked. She just thought there was a sloppy pool of benefit money that randos were able to siphon off of at will. That immigrants paid into Social Security and never were able to collect because they didn't have legitimate SS numbers, was not anything she had logically taken into account, although it was true. That Social Security for her was paid by workers who came after her, just like her contributions were paying for current retirees, was something she did not seem to be aware of. That Federal budgets really shouldn't take Social Security contributions into their scope when talking about what budget money is available, was not on her mental horizon.

She was happily blaming immigrants for a lack of benefits she was not even going to experience. 

All the arguments were at my tongue-tip. She got off at her floor "Have a blessed day" and I took my alone time until I got to my floor to say out loud to no one at all "That wasn't correct in any way." Because I had to say something out loud, to no one at all, or I might scream. 

And this was not even a likely Trump voter. This was just the kind of stupid prejudice people have about other people because they feel like having prejudices against people, I guess. It made me mad. So I place it here. 

I don't know when we attack that kind of fucked-up wrong concept about how things work, but I suggest the elected leaders of The Left try it. Put on record how things work. Because I am not sure some of the GOP elected know how all the things work, either.