Obama Plans to Cut Social Security Next

[Old Hippie]

1 in 5 working americans between 18-64 have no health insurance and 1 in 6 americans between those ages have no insurance (counting those "not looking for jobs"). Another 20% of americans have insurance but it is crappy insurance. So, 40% of working americans (over 90 million americans) either don't have insurance or have crappy insurance. For tose that want to get rid of the new health care laws, I wouldn't use those statistics to support my argument.

 

 

Add to this, most Americans have no pensions...and well a recipe for disaster...while I can see the argument the right makes about "being self reliant" it goes to shit when they keep fucking up everything you try to do to help yourself...

[cavanami]

"being self reliant"...what a crock of shit!

We are FORCED to pay into social security, except if you work for the railroad.

 

Now after xx years of being forced to pay in, they ran out of money? WTF!!!

 

OK, take the needed funds from the politicians retirement funds, after all, they are the ones that fuck it up!!!

[allistar]

Cav, if social security paid out to you monthly the benefits to which you are entitled, up to the point of the amount that you have paid into SS over your working lifetime, and then cut you off completely, would that satisfy you?

[cavanami]

It should be at least the same as what the railroad pays out.

 

Example: SS will pay me approx. $2500/month

 

Railroad will pay: $3600/month.

 

The railroad pays much better!!! Not exact numbers, but my neighbor has worked for the railroad and this is about what he will get every month, plus INSURANCE!

 

Yes, let the gov pay me what I paid in plus a fair interest added on.

 

Insurance, Prez. O has that covered....NOT!!!

 

Better yet, just provide me with the same benefits as the gov workers get and/or the politicians.

Simple, easy.

[Flashermac]

That must be something new then. My grandfather was retired from the railway (42 years) - and his pension was crap. That was years ago though.

 

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

Railroad pensions nowadays are crazy money. I golfed with about 30 guys or so from BNSF, probably 1/2 retired and they were getting 4-5k usd monthly. Not a bad gig.

[Flashermac]

When I was a kid, my grandfather told me to forget about the railway. He said railroads were a thing of the past.

 

My father had worked for the railway for 5 or 6 years, before he went to university on the GI Bill. He had paid in thousands to railroad retirement. When he tried to get his money back, they told him tough shit.

 

 

[bust]

[BaronTT]

It’s a common misconception that workers pay into the SS system and then get it back later.

 

Simply put, SS is a tax. The scheme is meant to re-distribute wealth by ensuring that all workers get some minimum level of benefit once they retire. It is not meant to be fair. There’s a fair bit of history you can look up if you’re so inclined.

 

Don’t forget that what a worker pays in is only half because the employer pays a similar amount.

People who received benefits when the SS scheme was young received a lot more than they were taxed. It’s the opposite now.

 

[allistar]

I'm self employed, so I pay the entire amount of SS and medicare taxes owed, the entire amount of my health care (at a much higher rate than group insurance) and don't have an employer match my contributions to a pension plan. Most years, what I pay in SS/medicare taxes is higher than what I owe to the IRS. If I move to Thailand after reaching 65, I lose my medicare benefits, unless I want to fly back to the U.S. for treatment. My guess is, at some point, SS benefits will be scaled back, or you will have to be older to collect or there will be means testing, or all of the above.