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[joeydb]

Originally Posted by bigrun

If you are on SS are you a recipient?

Unfortunately, yes.

I say unfortunately as all of us are forced into paying for this Ponzi scheme, which after paying for the typical 45 years from age 22 to age 67, wil not yield any gains. In fact, you will be paid a "benefit" less than you paid in, in principal only - no yield, and you will be taxed on it again. It was taxed the first time, and then it's taxed again. In addition, the original premise of "your employer pays half" is a farce. If you have a job paying $100,000 a year (just to keep the math easy), and the SS tax is 8%, you get $92,000 before all other taxes are subtracted, and your employer is presumed to pay another $8000. But the cost to your employer of retaining your labor is $108,000, not $100,000. The fact that you didn't see $108,000 as your gross pay is irrelevant.

It's also unfortunate in that this program breeds dependence, as it was designed to do. There is no trust fund, no lock box. The 22 year old young worker is paying for the guy who retired yesterday. There are many less new suckers coming into the system than the people retiring who, understandably, believe they are entitled to what has been sold to them as a benefit. Interestingly. even though most of us will not get back enough money to cover our "investment" (read that as "the amount we've been ripped off over our careers"), there are so many more retirees collecting than those paying, that the program still runs in the red all the time. This is why there are periodic calls to "fix" or "save" social security. Any fund yielding gains over the long term would not need this.

Social Security is the blurriest case, by design, in assessing recipient status because it's a social program trying to masquerade as a retirement investment. It fails on all counts.

The important part is that, as a recipient, the retiree collecting social security does have that necessarily play into his voting. This is why the Democrats love the program, and the Republicans are scared to ever mathematically get it in line so it does not run a deficit.

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by joeydb

Unfortunately, yes.

I say unfortunately as all of us are forced into paying for this Ponzi scheme, which after paying for the typical 45 years from age 22 to age 67, wil not yield any gains. In fact, you will be paid a "benefit" less than you paid in, in principal only - no yield, and you will be taxed on it again. It was taxed the first time, and then it's taxed again. In addition, the original premise of "your employer pays half" is a farce. If you have a job paying $100,000 a year (just to keep the math easy), and the SS tax is 8%, you get $92,000 before all other taxes are subtracted, and your employer is presumed to pay another $8000. But the cost to your employer of retaining your labor is $108,000, not $100,000. The fact that you didn't see $108,000 as your gross pay is irrelevant.

It's also unfortunate in that this program breeds dependence, as it was designed to do. There is no trust fund, no lock box. The 22 year old young worker is paying for the guy who retired yesterday. There are many less new suckers coming into the system than the people retiring who, understandably, believe they are entitled to what has been sold to them as a benefit. Interestingly. even though most of us will not get back enough money to cover our "investment" (read that as "the amount we've been ripped off over our careers"), there are so many more retirees collecting than those paying, that the program still runs in the red all the time. This is why there are periodic calls to "fix" or "save" social security. Any fund yielding gains over the long term would not need this.

Social Security is the blurriest case, by design, in assessing recipient status because it's a social program trying to masquerade as a retirement investment. It fails on all counts.

The important part is that, as a recipient, the retiree collecting social security does have that necessarily play into his voting. This is why the Democrats love the program, and the Republicans are scared to ever mathematically get it in line so it does not run a deficit.

Great post joey, well written but i like dan's and riot's answers better...
My nickname in the AF was 'Joey' and i am originally from the western part of the great state of PA...