Originally posted by AKIron
As one of the latest baby boomers, born in 1954, I have to wonder if I will see a return on my life long investment. While I'm not depending on it entirely for my retirement, it will make life easier. Many millions around my age probably feel the same way or will be even more dependent upon getting their social security check. If scocial security becomes unable to meet our needs just how great will social unrest become? Whaddya think?
INVESTMENT? Face it folks - Social Security is a welfare program, not an retirement account. At it's best benefit level, the check that social security is going to send you is going to be below the poverty level, so you better have something else in the works.
You and your employer have each been taxed 6.2% of your earnings for the old age / ssi benefit, and another 1.45% of your earnings for medicare since 1990 (when the rates were last raised). If you are self-employed, you get to pay both shares, which is 15.3% of your earnings.
For all this money you have been giving the government, you will get back a poverty level check each month (if you live long enough to claim it), and when you die, the government just keeps all the money you paid in. (Then they come by and hit you with an estate tax, but that is another story...)
If this were a "retirement account" offered by a private company - the owners of the company would have gone to jail for life.
Social Security should have been privatized long ago if it's purpose was to provide actual security in your old age. If you had taken all that money that was ripped from you and your employer and instead put it in US Savings Bonds (safe, eh? and the government pays you 90% of the average on 5-year t-bills as the interest rate), let it compound over your working life, then you would have big wad of tax-free cash at the end for you to retire on, plus you could pass it on to your children, fund your grandkids education, etc. etc. etc.
Republicans get criticized for "wanting to destroy social security" - yeah, you are damn right I do. The program is probably the biggest rip-off in american history. Why is it the government pays interest on t-bills they sell overseas, but don't want to pay the same interest to hard-working Americans here? Does that seem fair?
I'm not saying we should destroy the "social safety net" - we have a need to provide for people that simply can't provide for themselves due to disability. Fine - lets fund that HONESTLY as what it is - a welfare program. We have need to provide medical care to the POOR, fine - we can do that too.
A little less demagoguery from the politicians and this problem could have been solved a long time ago, and a lot of folks wouldn't be under the illusion that social security is going to keep them secure in their old age.
EagleDNY
$.02
