Posted on 01/17/2005 12:44:45 AM PST by kattracks
A young person's comment when they receive their first paycheck:
"Who the he!! is FICA, and why is he taking my money?"
I'd like to join the AAABSBBB: The Association of Americans About to Be Screwed By Baby Boomers.
Two of us screwee's working to pay the benefits of one retired Boomer doesn't sound like fun.
(No offense to you Boomers--you had no say in when you were born. But if we don't scrap this Ponzi scheme soon, I'm hosed.)
That's pure BS. It isn't young vs. old, it's taxpayers vs.government thieves! We paid in and we paid in and we paid in. Not only have they moved the retirement year back, but now they're trying to get out of their responsibilities to the Boomers.
If we can pay Palestinian's electric bills, give billions to Mexico, support illegal labor and support most of the world with "aid", we can stop the nonsense and put back the money stolen from the Boomers.
Don't let Media and the Government cloud your vision. And that's exactly what they're attempting to do. The Government is the enemy here, not the Boomers.
I'd like to join the AAABSBBB: The Association of Americans About to Be Screwed By Baby Boomers.
Two of us screwee's working to pay the benefits of one retired Boomer doesn't sound like fun.
(No offense to you Boomers--you had no say in when you were born. But if we don't scrap this Ponzi scheme soon, I'm hosed.)
3 posted on 01/17/2005 12:56:49 AM PST by Choose Ye This Day
See post 4! Shame on you!
How about those of us who have been paying in for 35 years now, and still have 20 to go....? Nothing like picking up the tab from day one and not getting anything back.
Stretch...The Old Geezer here...
How about those who paid in since SS first began... Some of us are still living and drawing on the 1% of our 15 and 20 cents an hour we earned during the great depression of the 30's working in the fields doing the only jobs available then and what the illegals are doing today. Remember the movie "Grapes Of Wrath". Some of us lived that out in real life. Of course, some of us moved up the scale in later years, but never got to live the American dream as it is known today. Education wasn't available to everyone from small town America. It wasn't that important then either.
Stretch...The Old Geezer here...
How about those who paid in since SS first began... Some of us are still living and drawing on the 1% of our 15 and 20 cents an hour we earned during the great depression of the 30's working in the fields doing the only jobs available then and what the illegals are doing today. Remember the movie "Grapes Of Wrath". Some of us lived that out in real life. Of course, some of us moved up the scale in later years, but never got to live the American dream as it is known today. Education wasn't available to everyone from small town America. It wasn't that important then either.
Well, no. You paid up, but you didn't pay in. That's the problem.
We should all do what was expected of us anyway I guess, die before we are old enough to collect!
At S.S.'s inception, the life expectancy was 64 years. Who'd a thunk we'd ever live long enough to collect?
IT WAS MEANT TO BE A HIDDEN TAX FROM THE START! They never expected to pay up!
So as one "boomer" who's been screwed by the system all his life, if you're gonna leave me high and dry when I reach "retirement age", gimme every stinking dime I paid in back, with 3 percent compounded interest now, and let me invest it myself while I still can. When you do that, then you can get rid of the system.
Don't blame us, we didn't have a choice.
What?
I know a lot of older people think they are just getting back what they paid in. That is a croak. They are getting back much more.
There are several examples of how much better things can be. Galveston, TX, opted out of SS years ago, and retirees do MUCH better out of it. I believe there are other examples, as well.
What?
I was referring to the misconception that we are all somehow "paying in" to some sort of Social Security "system". We are not. We are paying taxes into the general fund. The federal government is not required to pay any future benefits. We have no legal claim on any money we have paid to date. There are no property rights associated with our payments.
The Ponzi scheme must end. If I'm 40, making $50k/year, and I can take the FICA percentage and earn a 6% annual return, I'll have over $300k that is mine at the age of 65. If I wait until I'm 70, I'll have nearly a half mil. Under the current system, I might get $2k/month, with no guarantees.
You're right. And any proposed "reform" is not going to leave those who have "participated" for decades without the benefit. But as long as the AARP and Democrats demagogue the issue, we all get stuck with a program that sucks.
We don't have the working age population to support SS, or just about all of the social welfare programs out there. The US isn't as bad as Europe, but we are heading that way.
At least you had the benefit of lower FICA taxes back in the day.
What was it...2% on the first $3000 before they raised it umpteen times?!!!
"Lest ya'll forget, the Social Security system would have been solvent now and forever if DEMOCRATS had not made it possible to RAID the trustfund, that WAS in place, in a "lock box" at one time, by putting the money into the general fund where they could spend it."
There never was a 'lock box'.
I'm sorry to be blunt, but nobody owes you anything. You weren't paying into a retirement fund. You decided (not individually, but collectively) to support a pyramid scheme that was doomed to collapse they day it was proposed. If you don't end up getting screwed, then a younger generation will. Young workers who are smart enough to want to get rid of the system should be applauded for not falling for the lies of their elders and not made to feel guilty for ending this fiasco.
Sorry, All of foreign aid together only comes to a tiny percentage of what is paid out in Socialist Insecurity. The money we boomers paid in has already been paid out to the early "investors" in this mad Ponzi scheme.
If the money we paid in had actually been invested in individual accounts, as FDR sold the crazy scheme, we would all be millionaires now, and be able to pass the fortune off to our kids.
Thank God the current administration is finally taking the bull by the horns and reforming the system toward what it was originally sold as: Individual accounts that contain actual wealth instead of government IOU's.
THE CURRENT AND PRIOR SS RECIPIENTS HAVE RECEIVED FAR MORE THAN THEY PUT IN . THIS EVEN INCLUDES INTEREST. THE GREEDY GEEZERS /AARP KNOW THIS, BUT INSTEAD OF THANKING YOUNG PEOPLE FOR AN UNDESERVED FREE LUNCH THEY USE THEIR CLOUT TO MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO. THIS IS WRONG! AND THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED. THE ELDERLY ARE THE WEALTHIEST AGE GROUP IN THIS COUNTRY AND ON TOP OF THAT ARE RECEIVING THE LIONS SHARE OF BENEFITS. AARP SPENDS ALOT OF MONEY PROPAGATING THE MYTH OF THE POOR GRANDMA EATING PET FOOD, THERE ARE FAR MORE POOR CHILDREN THAN ELDERLY.
WHENEVER SOME LIBERAL FROM HELL WRITES THAT SS HAS BEEN AMERICA'S MOST SUCCESFUL PROGRAM , THEY ARE DISINGENUOUS. ANY PROGRAM THAT TAKES FROM PETER TO PAY PAUL IS GREAT FOR PAUL BUT WHAT ABOUT PETER?
MY SOLUTION IS "MEANS TEST AFTER PAYBACK". LESLIE STAHL DID A STORY ON 60MINUTES A FEW YEARS AGO AND THEY DETERMINED THAT WITH INTEREST, THE CURRENT RETIREES ONLY PAID ENOUGH IN FICA TO COLLECT FOR -THREE- YEARS. THIS MEANS AT 68 THEY ARE STEALING OUR FICA DOLLARS FOR THEIR EARLY BIRD SPECIALS, CARNIVAL CRUISES AND TRIPS TO BRANSON. AT 68 , THE SS CHECKS SHOULD BE MEANS TESTED SO THAT ONLY THE PET FOOD EATING GRANNIES GET BENEFITS. AARP KNOWS THIS AND IT IS A DISGRACE THAT THEY WOULD FIGHT TO MAINTAIN SUCH AN UNETHICAL SYSTEM.
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