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Wow! Great article. I can't believe it was published.

I get in real trouble when I explain to a leech...er...senior citizen that Social Security and Medicare is simply the government robbing and looting my paycheck and others' paychecks and redistributing it to them. Tough luck. The money belongs to me and my family. Seven percent of my income (actually much more if you factor in what my employer is paying as matching "contributions" - what he has budgeted to pay me but has to give over to government robbers) goes directly to these leeches. For me, if you factor in employer matching, that comes to over $10,000 per year that is freakin' stolen from my family and given to some old fart somewhere who failed to budget and plan his finances accordingly.

Take a look at your FICA "contributions" - then double them. That is what is being outright stolen from you and your family. And then go find the part of the Constitution that allows this theft. Don't bother, it is not there.

Man, I'm pissed. Where are the crates of tea to dump, dammit? Where's my warpaint? I'm sick to death of this crap!

Want to get pissed too? Check out this Social Security calculator from The Heritage Foundation and you will see how much you would be able to retire with and leave to your heirs if you didn't have your money stolen from you and flushed down the freakin' retarded Social Security ponzi scam.

For me, I would have around $1million by simply investing the same amount into interest bearing accounts, stocks, and bonds. Then, I would be able to live comfortably until I die and would leave around $800k to my heirs. Imagine the magnitude of the theft that the Federal Government is perpetrating against every working American!

Actually social security is not that hard of item to rationalize.

In many societies (including ours at one time) you saved up enough money to live off on durring old age, though that did not stop you from working. Also the younger generation of a family would in many cases support the older generation. The problem is that changed in the 1920's and 1930's (1930's for the US in particular). The Great War left Europe with out much of it's work force and was forced to provide for those who could no longer provide for themselves or had their childern to provide for them. While it's an over simplification of what happened there it's pretty much what did happen.

On the other side of the atlantic the US went through a major ecconomic boom, which in fact ended up being a bubble due in part to European resurgence. That European resurgence led to lower exports and a slowing of the economy here. When the bubble here finally bursted it destroyed the banking system which was due in no small part to the large amount of speculation. That and the following massive unemployment left vast numbers of families unable to fend for themselves let alone their parents.

The 1930's were filled with accounts of riots, strikes and shanty towns (the mall in DC was called Hoovervill, which was filled with vets from WWI seeking war benifits early to ofset their unemployment).

Now flash forward, and today we are at a point where we have a saving rate of about 0.004% and a "retirement" system that if it doesn't implode in 15 years will face the bleak prosepect of each "retireree" being suported by two workers by 2030.

That and our way of life is changing, it's hard to say what it will be like in 20 years, but it will be different.

I guess that's a consequence of moving into an age of dreams.

Hey Spiff! -- Dont call me a 'leech'. I was making the exact same argument as you, back in '62, when I became a self-employed contractor. I've paid in at max, ever since, - and now I expect to cash out. [if I live long enough]
To get even, I figure it'll take me another 15 years, barring inflation. - I doubt I'll make it to that age, so the ponzi scheme will work, in my instance.

In yours, you lo0se. - But have no fear, Big Brother will crank up the printing presses to bail society, and maybe you, out of this fine mess.

So when you reach the age to qualify for SS do you intend to forfeit your benefits? Will what you and your employer paid in go to others who have not been required to do so? You seem to assume that the current retirees have not paid in as much as you have. You are ignorant of the fact that not all SS money goes to retirees. I do not know the current figures, but several years ago close to half of SS went for non-related retirement benefits to a variety of programs grafted onto the SS system. I know more SS receipents who are not retirees than those who are. These include retarded children who get a monthly check. Get mad at the right people. The retirees have paid into the system and many were as reluctant to do so as you seem to be. None of the retirees I know are even close to being wealthy. They aren't robbing you of a damn thing. All served in the armed forces during war time and the widows of some get so little SS that I don't know how they manage. Further, there is a current move to suspend SS taxes for the so-called working poor and that has to mean that these workers will still be able to get SS benefits without reguard to the number of quarters they have worked. Full blown socialism is indeed in gallop mode. As to your presumption that without paying SS taxes you would be wealthy---we'll never know will we? You can save and invest now if your ambition is to acquire wealth. But if you expend your energy blowing a gasket at perceived enemies, you'll be forever sidetracked from your goals. Just an observation from somebody who has heard similar excuses as yours for not progressing as rapidly as they think is their due.