Nothing against any old person particularly, but there is a mentality of entitlement that is simply astounding when you really think about it.
Young workers get the shaft and can barely pay their bills due to high taxes, exorbitant housing costs, etc, and the seniors demand more and morw and more when they never paid in a fraction of what they take out.
Think about it, many people on Social Security get more per month than many young workers working full time after you consider FICA, taxes etc. What a damn joke this system is.
Most doctors and insurance companys would be out of a job if the government did not pay for every medical procedure every time a senior sneezes. I remember my grandfather going to the doctor every time he had a little cold or cough. The medical bills to medicare were unbelievable.
Nothing against my elders but the system is much more favorable if you got your money in at the lower FICA withholding rates. It was initially only 2 percent and has grown exponentially to 12.4 percent over the years.
You got that right. After all the taxation (theft), I am lucky to get 45% of my earnings. What this causes is a lower quality of life for me, than my parents. My gross wage is higher, yet my economic power is worse! Makes me wonder why I try.....
Anyway, I would be willing to sacrifice the last 20 years worth of SS contributions for the ability to opt out of the system today.
I don't believe this is true. My folks paid social security taxes all their life. Had that money been invested, they would be earning a lot more on it than they are getting. My wife's mom would be destitute without it.
I really think all the talk on this thread ignores a real and serious point: Substantial portions of two generations of Americans planned their retirement based on having Social Security. Yes, it was a bad program and yes the demographics of the baby bust give it the effect of a ponzi scheme. But it's a fact that folks have planned their lives around. So cut 'em a little slack.
There's no easy way out of this one that doesn't hurt folks. The boomers are going to get a lot less in real dollars than they have planned for and they are going to have to work for many years longer than any previous generation.. And, the X'ers and Y'ers are going to have to pay some of it--they will end up taking care of their parents thru social security or privately.
It's a lousy fix we are in as a society and we owe it all to our friendly neighborhood socialists and their fawning media lap dogs who refused to tell the truth about social security for 70 years (none of this is new or surprising to folks who have followed it for a while). W is trying to undo seventy years of expectations built by a program that would have worked (albeit badly from a rate of return viewpoint) had the birth control pill and abortion not come along. It isn't going to be fixed by throwing my wife's mom on the street--the votes aren't there.