baloney. Google "Ida May Fuller." The system was broken the moment it changed from a single lump-sum payment to a monthly check; basically from day one.
yeah no, not so much, the system had more people payign in than were receivign payments, and let’s not forget, back then peopel were dyign much younger (notl ong ago the national average lifespan was just 38 years old- not sure what it was in the 40’s when Ida bergan receivign her checks, but much less than today’s lifespan average) so this meant lots of people were not collectign retirement but were still paying in- This was the ‘retirement plan’ sold by congress to the people (Yes, I know, we didn’t agree to have SS witrhheld, but we were told them oney was goign to be there if and when we needed it- So many people rightfully so thought they were part of a system that woudl be their safety net
I take it your resposne to me was a response foprmed after lsitenign to Glenn Beck’s rant abotu ‘peopel slurping at hte government trough’? (in which he specifically targetted Ida May?) He showed how she only paid in $24 or so, while collecting over $22,000 because she lived so long afterwards- He made it seem like everyoen inevitably WILL get old and collect large sums but as we know, thsoe that do live long are offset by thsoe that don’t make it to old age (The baby boomer generation is goign to put a bit of a wrinkle in this though- but only temporarily) tens of millions who died BEFORE colelctign anythign will foot hte bills of thsoe that do live logner- and if we as a geenration can’t agree to help out htis way EVEN IF we’re the oens who might die early before collecting, then there’s soemthign morally wrong with us
Again, most people’s understandign of the system was that ‘sure, soem would get more than they put in, probably most woudl get more, but also, many woudl die before ever collecting, and many would die soon after they began collecting, and so the left overs woudl be i nthe fund that was SUPPOSED to be invested to ensure the money woudl still be there and makign money to keep the fund with enough cash to cover growing population- We now know our govenrment did NOT do that- they squandered the money, and continue squanderign taxpayer money by sendign hundreds of billiosn to terrorist nations while our seniors and dissabled are forced to do without
Not sure why all the anger is beign directed at thsoe who paid in and then colelct i nthe end? The cuprit here is the governement tellign us there’s ‘nop money left’ when ifnact there are hundredfs of billions left (there must be, otherwise, how coudl our dear leader be sendign so much overseas and givign so much to ILLEGAL ALIENS?
We can’t fault the folks who worked hard all theuir lives thinkign htey woudl be taken care of, and if they didn’;t live long enough, their moeny woudl help others- that was how the system was suppsoed to work EVEN WHEN the system went to a monthly payment system- there was plenty of money to take care of everythign UNTIL our govenrment screwed us (per usual)
The mentaqlity seems to be ‘Taxpayers foot the bills of thsoe who ‘no logner work’ but the mentality shuld be ‘Taxpayers foot the bikll of thsoe who ‘CAN NO LONGER WORK’ knowing that they too will be in that position very soon themselves someday”