Posted on 11/29/2010 4:22:27 AM PST by rabscuttle385
There is no such DU tactics as you speak of.
If McCain is so concerned about the broken system it seems a bit hypocritical that a man with his money would need to receive SS
Now if you dont agree that’s fine.
Personally if I had his money, was still working and earning a Senators pay and was married to the beer matron I would not collect it, but that’s just me.
I am sure Mr. McCain has need for that extra 2 grand.
The disgrace is the fact that social security would be flush with cash, if
1)In the 60's LBJ and the demnoRATs didn't change the law and use SS funds with the general fund
2) The demonRATs didn't add every deadbeat to a program called SSI, which allows millions to draw SS funds while never having paid into the program.
If those two changes were not made by the demonRATs, the Social Security fund would be paying retirees $ 4-5 thousand per month and would be solvent for centuries to come, but they couldn't keep their grubby hands off of our money.
Generally speaking, your #1 contradicts in part your #2.
High-wage workers (a group to which Mr. McCain belongs) get the poorest deal out of Social Security.
Someone who is paying near or at the top of the maximum FICA contribution for much or most of his career, even though he will get a larger benefit than others, and even though it is quite likely that he will not need Social Security when he retires, will nonetheless receive benefits that are not commensurate with his “contributions,” especially if one imputes a reasonable rate of return to them.
I'm 50 and once a year, the Social Security Administration sends me a little pamphlet telling me what my benefits might look like when I reach retirement age, how much I've contributed over the years, what my survivors’ benefits would look like if I died early, etc.
It actually gives me a year-by-year account of my contributions. I've stopped going through that report and recalculating what I would have in a private retirement account with, say, a 6% or 7% nominal (not real, after inflation) return on my investment. Why? Because it sickens me that all this money has been taken from me, rather than being permitted to have saved and invested the money myself.
Assuming that I continue to pay at the rate that I'm currently paying, when I turn 65, if I were to pay myself 4% of the accumulated principal, I'd be able to take an income a MULTIPLE of what Social Security will pay me. AND, no matter how long I lived, when I died, my heirs would receive a tidy sum.
The dirty little secret is that high wage workers already get screwed by Social Security. The system is weighted to provide more generous benefits, in relation to payroll taxes paid in, to lower-wage workers than to the workers who top out in contributions.
That high-income retirees are taxed to some degree for additional earnings or income further degrades the system, in terms of providing a fair return for what one put in, and makes it more of a welfare system.
If the system were based on #2, getting back what you put in plus a reasonable rate of return, the high-wage workers who became high-income retirees would receive MORE money, would be treated LESS harshly vis-a-vis taxes, and middle and lower wage workers with less retirement income would receive LOWER benefits, especially folks in the bottom half.
sitetest
Same here.
No regrets.
Immigrants collecting SS after being in US for a few years:
Get a bag ready and be prepared to vomit.
DEPORT DEPORT DEPORT.
Even though some admit they would practically be on the street of their countries eating out of the gutter, they are angry that ‘that is all they get’.
Retirement would be a good idea...
For later
No contradiction at all.....I said that the people who don’t wantor need the SS and would like to do some sacrifice for their country be ABLE to DECLINE their SS pymts and get an AWARD for it. Right now you can NOT DECLINE the pymts.
bttt
“Right now you can NOT DECLINE the pymts.”
Certainly you can.
First, I'm reasonably sure that no one receives benefits unless they apply. A quick glance at the SSA website didn't answer that question explicitly. Nonetheless, it appears to answer the question implicitly. The site makes clear that to begin to receive benefits, you must submit an application, along with certain critical documents and information. I assume that if you were to refuse to do so, you wouldn't receive benefits. Other sources (not ones I'm going to bet the mortgage on) indicate that one is not obligated to apply for and receive Social Security benefits.
However, even if one can't decline the benefits, the Treasury maintains a fund for those who would like to “donate” extra funds to the federal government. One could easily take one’s net Social Security benefit (after any applicable taxes, etc.), and send it off to the government.
But part of my point is that high-wage workers ALREADY DESERVE AN AWARD, because frankly, they are already “donating” part of what they earned to the system, since they receive far less in return for their contributions than other workers. If I, when I reach full retirement age, receive my “full” benefit, I will be receiving far less, in relationship to my contributions, than others who had lower wages than me. In fact, the imputed “rate of return” that I will receive will, depending on how long I live, be in the range of well under 2% to possibly a negative rate of return.
Even receiving full benefits, why won't I deserve an award?
sitetest
Someone needs to ASK Sen. McCAIN if he APPLIED for SS!! Hello Arizona Freepers.....write to Sen. mcCain to ask him this.
Why?
Why shouldn't he collect his benefits?
He probably maxed out contributions for some number of years, and he gets back a benefit check that is near the top of the possible range.
Folks at the top of the range already receive relatively less benefit than folks in the bottom half. Folks at the top are already losing part of the benefit they might have received to folks in the bottom half.
Why should these folks lose or forgo even more?
sitetest
Please explain how anybody's "need" is relevant to the discussion. I had no need for the government to take my pay over the years. It didn't matter.
here here
as soon as SS payments become “means tested” then it becomes just another welfare program
stop paying the lower and middle classes “SSI” for their ADHD kids and start saving money immediately
**************
Agree — there are so many abuses of this program which is no prize to begin with — kick the undeserving millions off the SS “disability” rolls and then survey the situation. I know more than a few lazy a**es on phony SS Disability claims — and that’s not counting the rest of the abusers you mention above.
I do NOT believe in means testing at all — NO NO NO!!! Those who actually worked and contributed should get the benefits when they retire no matter what their “means.” To hell with the rest of the money-grubbing crowd who have contributed nothing yet collect benefits.
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