Social Security

[LawCash]

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When social security busts and can't provide me with any support, am I going to be able to sue the federal government to retrieve lost wages + interest due to payments that I have made?

 

[Laker]

no. that is why you have to vote for republicans so that they will privatize social security. I would rather invest my social security money into my own private account rather than pay in to this irresponsible system.

 

[gastrodoc]

Riiiiight, cause they've done such a good job with the nat'l debt over the past 7 years. 600 billion in war costs, no increase in taxes, tax cuts for the wealthy and irresponsible spending.
The repubs are NOT a fiscally conservative/ responsible party.

 

[LawCash]

yea... voting for republicans? or democrats? **** that ****.. I just wish there was a way to opt out of SS. I suppose we would all eventually pay for the babyboomers one way or another though- it's a bad scene.

 

[etf]

I just wish there was a way to opt out of SS.

there is...it's called working for the public sector, particularly working for the federal govt.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Social security isn't an investment or retirement program. It is a social insurance program. It is in place so that if you #1 have horrible things happen to you you won't be sitting in front of the local federal building begging and #2 if you are too dumb to save for the future at least you'll have something. By having it we can #1 feel good about taking care of our poor, #2 not worry about the poor disrupting our social and economic system (which allows those of us with the ability to not need social security) and #3 at least get something back for our taxes (this is how they keep the program reasonably popular.) If people were allowed to invest it in a private account, those who didn't need it would have even more, and those who really do need it would be swindled by Wall Street into having even less than they do now.

It isn't going away. The age for receiving benefits may go up, the amount of benefits may go down, or the amount you pay in will go up. SS is easy to fix. It is medicare you should worry about.

 

[etf]

Social security isn't an investment or retirement program. It is a social insurance program. It is in place so that if you #1 have horrible things happen to you you won't be sitting in front of the local federal building begging and #2 if you are too dumb to save for the future at least you'll have something. By having it we can #1 feel good about taking care of our poor, #2 not worry about the poor disrupting our social and economic system (which allows those of us with the ability to not need social security) and #3 at least get something back for our taxes (this is how they keep the program reasonably popular.) If people were allowed to invest it in a private account, those who didn't need it would have even more, and those who really do need it would be swindled by Wall Street into having even less than they do now.

It isn't going away. The age for receiving benefits may go up, the amount of benefits may go down, or the amount you pay in will go up. SS is easy to fix. It is medicare you should worry about.

i read somewhere that medicare will start paying out more than it will take in during the year 2019, the same year that social security is going to be tapped out.

 

[Tenesma]

social security is not an investment plan...

it is based on the premise (from the roosevelt days) that current dollars go to support the elderly (when back then there were a lot of young folk and most people didn't make it past 65)....

so social security is basically a guarantee that we (taxpayers) will support our elderly and disabled... in no way (if you look at the law) do our payments constitute any guarantee of receiving ANYTHING in return (despite those very misleading statements that they send in the mail every year) in the future... the reason that social security will run out of money is that within the next 30 years more people will be collecting checks then the current system has budgeted for - there are several fixes

1) increase require social security payments by increasing the cap and increasing the tax rate

or

2) decrease benefits payable

or

3) start phasing in an active investment program through the private sector to "guarantee" the difference without having to do #1 and #2 - that is what Bush was promoting and it fell to the curb because of the huge voting block that would have been scared silly without understanding the real implications...

medicare is a whole different issue and will collapse in the next 10-20 years and we as physicians will be making a lot less money from the government

 

[Ephesus]

yea... voting for republicans? or democrats? **** that ****.. I just wish there was a way to opt out of SS. I suppose we would all eventually pay for the babyboomers one way or another though- it's a bad scene.

If you work for a non-profit you can opt out.

I agree that SS should be privatized, but it won't be looked at seriously for at least ten more years.