The reason I know this is because every year I get this statement and the amount I should get when I reach retirement age is reduced by a bit.
Also, they want me to work as long as possible so they don’t have to pay me my full benefits, and if I kick the bucket while I’m still working, I don’t get the money anyway.
Great system.
So I guess y’all are gonna debate me now, huh? Well, just so’s you know: I got some friends. They’re at the Krispy Kreme right now havin’ breakfast, but they’ll be here if I need 'em!
Quasi ::with his knees a-knockin’ but holding his ground:
Social Security is a transfer from the young to the old. You have no money in the system. It is not an investment. If you want money to be available when you retire, get your ass out and start fucking, 'cos the more people in the next generation, the easier it will be to fund your retirment.
Social security is paid by our government, it is as strong as our economy.
As long as the United States has continuing buget surpluses, a positive balance of trade, a strong dollar, an overwelming manufacturing and high tech base, and every american working in high paying jobs and paying taxes, social security, and our government will be strong.
The more that we and fellow amerians prosper and have high paying jobs, the more money is in the coffers to more than supply social security benefits.
If you want to make sure that your social security check will be in the mailbox, make sure that all of todays kids have plenty of high paying jobs awaiting them when they graduate from high school and college.
There is, however, another factor at work: health care advances have led to increases in life expectancies, and the Social Security system may not be able to pay for those extra years. Good news: you’ll live longer. Bad news: you may be penniless.
Jeez, Quasi! Could you have picked a dryer topic?
I favor being able to draw out my money in a lump sum, rather than taking the gamble that it might not be there when I retire. At least that way I’m the one responsible for it.
Which just means that we should up the age at which one is eligible for social security, instead of using an archaic number that was drummed up back in the day when it’d be a miracle if someone saw the age of fifty.
Up it to what age, though? I just shudder to think I’ll be working at age 75 – but, then again, I see a lot of folks in the workplace who have to be older than 65. The Walmart greeters, for example. :eek:
I really deserve to win the lotto. Really.
I’m going to need some assistance from the troops - stop eating those donuts and get in here! Quasi, you out there?
But that’s just it! The longer they keep us working, the less they know they’ll have to pay out! And yes, I see elderly folks working at Wally-World, at supermarkets and such. I would like to think they’re doing it to keep themselves busy after retiring from their regular job, but I don’t think that’s the case.
We paid the money in, right? It’s pure speculation that what we paid in will be there for us when we need it. Did I sign up for SS? No, I did not. It was forced on me when I entered the workforce at age 15.
So gimme my money back and don’t take out any more, and I’ll quit bitchin’ about it!
You don’t put money in and then take money out. You put money in, the people who are old right now take money out.
See, back when the started SS, they didn’t say, okay, we’ll be having SS in 65 years, start paying in and then, when all of y’all retire, we’ll start paying out.
I do, my friend. I have a 401K and a savings account which right now pays me a whopping 2.3% interest! But once I retire, I will have other issues, such as supplemental health insurance and enough life insurance to leave my son and grandchildren a little something. Right now, all that is paid through my employment. When I retire, all that will stop and I will need the extra bucks to not only continue to survive, but to leave my loved ones a little something.
My TIAA/CREF thingy says that when I retire (at 65, they claim), I’ll have something like $450,000 in the thing. Then again, when I’m 65, that’ll buy me one Big Mac.
