“Blame it on people living to 90 and 100 nowadays”
Sure... I’ve been paying in a hefty amount for the past 30 years (and likely will be for the next 10-15 years)... Now I’ll receive the blame because I keep myself healthy... Makes sense. (My Dad’s turning 90, and gets a very, very tiny SS check, even though he worked his *ss off his whole life - He’s not complaining BTW, even though there are numerous people he knows getting more than him on a SS “disability”)...
I’ll take the SS “contributions” I’ve made over the years back and open my own IRA, please and thank you.
Point 1: People whose employer paid half for many years make out the best on the balance sheet, on average.
Point 2: Widows make out like crazy sometimes. They can get survivor’s benefits at 60, plus statistics show that in general women are wealthier than men, because women live longer and the statistics count all the women who inherited millions from their husbands.
Not advocating cutting widows’ benefits, by the way. It’s in the Bible to help widows and orphans. Just saying.
Point 3: Like rent control in NYC (and elsewhere), you lucked out if you got in early, especially if you worked for a corporation all your life. There are many who have received more from Social Security than they ever put in, 3 and 4 times as much (not adjusted for inflation). So it’s not all unfair. Except that you have to listen to the word Ponzi now and then.
I’m also not advocating cutting anyone’s payments. I’m just saying that it is hard to create total fairness in a yuge system that has so many different income types in it. There are those who make out well and those who don’t.
The worst thing of all would be to go socialist, and then the capo tells you what do to and there’s no more petitioning your representatives for anything.