Social Security can’t save us from the poorhouse

Marketwatch ^ | April 4, 2014, 6:01 a.m. EDT

[wetphoenix]

Financial advisers for years have warned about a looming shortfall between what people have saved and what they’ll need to maintain their standard of living in retirement.

And, certainly, what Americans have put away for retirement is paltry. Unless we all start saving like crazy, the pundits say, we’ll have nothing to live on during our so-called golden years. Or we’ll all have to work into our eighties — if they let us.

But maybe we should look at it another way. For most Americans, Social Security will be their primary source of retirement income. Everything else — IRAs, 401(k)’s, even some old-fashioned defined-benefit pension plans — will be icing on a not-very-rich cake.

The reasons are clear. Tens of millions of Americans don’t have access to 401(k)’s or other retirement plans at work. And millions of families are barely earning enough to cover their current needs, let alone save for retirement.

Suggesting that Social Security will be Americans’ main source of retirement income may seem surprising; after all, the average monthly benefit is only $1,294, according to the Social Security Administration.

But it’s no surprise at all to Dallas Salisbury, president of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), a Washington, D.C.-based group that publishes tons of research on the topic.

When I put the question to him in a phone interview this week, he said matter-of-factly: “That’s what all kinds of pensions have always been. The system always has been designed to supplement Social Security for individuals who have had continuous attachment to the labor force.”

[dfwgator]

Many will criticize those who make the decision to escape from Amerika, but one day Big Brother may attempt to thwart that option, especially if you are a productive achiever.

Hillary Flammond: My uncle was born in America.

Nick Rivers: Oh, really?

Hillary Flammond: But he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency.

Top Secret

[dfwgator]

Thanks for getting back to me ... thinking fairly seriously about Finland

Finland Has It All

[WVKayaker]

Nope, that is where you are wrong lil rat turd.

What an eloquent and erudite way of statement! (/sarcasm!)

Your posts reveal just how low some Americans have become and why it is no longer the best place to live. When a complete stranger uses his/her anonymity to speak ill of others, it makes me even more convinced that I made the right choice. I grew up in the South, and my Mom and Pop taught me better.

Here, my best friend's are Filipinos. The city where I chose to live is one of the best cities in Asia, and one of the safest places in the World. My money allows for a great lifestyle. My life is more like the life I enjoyed when I was younger in a better America than now exists.

This is forum known for upholding the values of America not running it down every other sentence like AlexW.

What values do you show in this trash talk? Alex has all of the rights of every United States citizen, and that includes the first amendments guarantees of the Freedom of Speech. That is also your right, but puerile slander and name calling are signs of an ignorant, ill-bred nobody!

Grow up! I found some more of your friends...

[Kozak]

Yeah I never made “ the deal” whereby my pocket gets picked even more.

[AlexW]

“What an eloquent and erudite way of statement! (/sarcasm!) “
__________________________________________________
Welcome to the “dog in a manger” club. They are a real class act...NOT, haha
At least I now have some company :)
We can always judge just how bad life is becoming in Obozoland by the tone of the manger dogs. The worse things get there, the louder they bark at us. Just think how excited they will be when Hildabeast gets elected ! I guess slick Willie is the only one that feels their pain...poor babies.
My neighbor, Charlie from Cape Cod, has joined FR. The dogs will have some fresh meat to bark at.

[bobby.223]

Get lost gutless. Your not buzzed enough yet? Go pound another jug of that “one bottle of red wine per day” you claim you drink. You are so cranked that the Dawgs don’t feel the pain you feel stuck in some turd world mess while we are lucky enough to live in the greatest country on earth, The United States of America. But of course since you made such a mess of your financial position and can’t live in the USA on your meager SS payment, as you stated, I guess maybe where you are at is the only place you can live. Of course when the SHTF and your electronic deposits STOP....what are you gonna do then coward? Hey I have it!! Sub out your ‘Washing Machine Appliance’ to work in other grass huts around town!!! That might bring in a few beans for ya! Be careful now tho....when the muzzies come for you and your WMA it will not be pretty or painless. WHERE IS THE QUOTE LIAR? WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO ADMITT YOU MADE IT UP AND LIED? C’MON COWARD....WHERE IS THAT QUOTE!? POST IT NOW COWARD!

[DuncanWaring]

Ironic, ain't it?

You like to blather on about the "United Socialist States of America", but were it not for your Social Security pension, you'd be penniless.

[DuncanWaring]

Have you ever noticed that you are, for all intents and purposes, the only Philippine expat we say anything to?

Maybe it’s not the Philippines; maybe it’s you.

[GAFreedom]

This bloodhound is smelling something and it is a traitorous rat turd....Got my own life and a WIFE AlexW not a washing machine.

I don't rightly understand. You'd prefer he live in poverty in the USA rather than live well in Poland or the Philippines? Why? And this man is married; why do you speak that way of his wife? Is it because she's Filipino?

=====
@WVKayaker:

When a complete stranger uses his/her anonymity to speak ill of others, it makes me even more convinced that I made the right choice. I grew up in the South, and my Mom and Pop taught me better.

Born and bred Southron myself, WVKayaker. Reading this post, it does seem this "Dog Pack" have forgotten their Christian manners. I also don't see why they should pooh-pooh a good economical choice; prudent financial decisions are a part of conservatism and we live in a global market in this day and age, not a national one.

[VerySadAmerican]

My wife and I are “okay” as long as neither of us dies. If she dies first, I’m going to Mexico. I worry about me dying first. I don’t know what she’ll do.

[AlexW]

“My wife and I are “okay” as long as neither of us dies. If she dies first,”
_______________________________________________
No need to be so morbid. I am sure that my wife will long outlive me, but life goes on. I do, however, understand your screen name. I would also be very sad if I were back in the Obamination. I am, however, blessed by God that I can live my own life, where and how I want. Being a devoted American does not mean that one has to suffer the indignity of a Communist POTUS, or the high cost of living there.

[VerySadAmerican]

My screen name represents how I feel about what has become of my country. I am sad that it happened. And I’m sad that “we the people” sat by and watched it happen for decades.

[AlexW]

“My screen name represents how I feel about what has become of my country.”
_______________________________________________
I understand how you feel. By the way, welcome to FreeRepublic....Well, the US is not so free now. I do not know if or when it will return to being the country that I grew up in.

[gogeo]

I’m not following what you said...

[gleeaikin]

I hope this answers what you are not following. In 1983 it was agreed that people with income up to 90% of all aggregate US income would pay SS on their income. Anyone whose income was above the 90% level did not pay SS on the amount above. In other words if 90% of all income averaged below $100,000, then anyone earning an income above $100,000 would not pay SS on the amount above the $100,000. Because after 1983 there was a sharp increase in salaries earned at higher levels, but the wage cap only increased a little each year, soon the wage cap no longer represented the amount below which 90% of all income fell. Thus the rich continued to get much richer but paid less of their income into SS, which is why experts are now worried SS is in trouble. I hope this helps. You might also Google “wage cap”. Perhaps someone has explained it better than I have.

[gleeaikin]

What I get is based on what I paid in and is assigned by the Social Security Administration. There is no way I or anyone else can “help myself” to more of your money. If, however, you were earning above the wage cap since 1983, then you have been the beneficiary of our government’s failure to follow the agreement made in 1983, for most of the years since then.

[Kozak]

Ridiculous. No provision for automatic increases in the caps was made. Neither were automatic increases in benefits. If BOTH were calculated on the same inflation formula maybe. But just increasing the caps so I get to pay even more is just more stealing from me. The fact that your personal benefit is “ based on “ blah blah is just your way of sending armed agents to steal from me. Not interested. If the caps are raised without an equal benefit increase, any fiction this is not “welfare for old people”, and but some form of income insurance goes away. If its welfare, then I say let it die. Means test the welfare benefit and roll it into the general fund if you are a destitute person young or old you get if not too bad. I’m sick of

” From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” as the organizing principle in our country, even among so called “conservatives”.

[DuncanWaring]

And this man is married; why do you speak that way of his wife?

"We" don't speak that way of his wife; "he" speaks that way of his wife.

See Post 12 in this thread.

I also don't see why they should pooh-pooh a good economical choice;

We don't pooh-pooh good economical choices; we pooh-pooh those who sit half-way around the world, disparaging this country as socialist, while relying on said socialism to keep himself from having to live under a bridge.

[bobby.223]

Don’t be snowed noobie! Go back and read the posting history of Alex W, from say 6 months back. He never stops calling/bashing America as the ‘USSA’ and thinks anyone who lives in America, trying to pull together and ‘right the ship’ is dumb for doing so. He acts like living on his meager SS payments, (He can’t afford to live in America on it.....his own words), in his little place in the third word is a better place to be than living in America. His ‘Washing Machine’ is what HE calls his OWN wife! Isn’t that a nice way to term your own wife? He has lied about another poster here, WKUMAN, and will not own up to it. He claims he drinks a full bottle of red wine EACH day.....that might have something to do with his surrender monkey thoughts. Who knows?

[NFHale]

“...Reading this post, it does seem this “Dog Pack” have forgotten their Christian manners. ...”

Dog pack was his snide little name for anyone that disagreed with him and his snotty, arrogant attitude. Most people were initially cordial with him.

There’s a history to it, much more than is apparent here. A little research would be in order before jumping to conclusions.

Welcome to Free Republic, either way.