[eastforker]

Then in your view someone who has paid into the sytem,SS, is stealing if they receive bennefits??

[DuncanWaring]

Until the large jumps in FICA taxes in the last decade or two, retirees generally collected an amount equal to their total lifetime contributions within the first couple of years of retirement.

In an extreme example, the very first Social Security recipient, Ida Mae Fuller, paid a total of $24 and collected $22,000.

Yes, generally, they are in receipt of stolen goods.

Do it on your own, without the government to launder the stolen goods, and you go to prison.

[PapaBear3625]

Then in your view someone who has paid into the sytem,SS, is stealing if they receive bennefits??

By the same logic, any public employee receiving a pension is also stealing. Given some of the pension-inflation scams, there's more weight that could be given to the latter assertion.