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Free welfare money and earned entitlement money have been lumped together by the media and the government so that all these payments are considered "equal".
It's the PC thing to do.
It does work both ways, when it's convenient.
That " 47% who pay no taxes" lumped those living off of SS, SSDI, SDI, VA, low income earners with dependents and no income earners with dependents into the same bucket.
OP, you reap what you sewed. By that, I mean your age group has been the biggest supporter of the GOP agenda to label SS as welfare. Remember all the "keep your government hands off my Medicare" debacle?
Anyway, keep voting conservative. Keep hating gay people. Keep saying amen and praise the bible. You reap what you sew.
First of all the word you want is "sow" meaning to plant, not "sew" meaning to work on cloth with thread. Second, why are you taking the original poster to task as a conservative voter when you don't know anything about his political opinions? Do you usually lump members of large groups together? Noteveryone in "his age group" votes the same way. And what do homosexuals have to do with the thread topic? Nothing at all.
Buy the same token of calling SS "welfare", so IS A PENSION PLAN. Not a 401k, 403b or other that you pay into, but a tried and true benefit plan YOU PAID NOTHING IN TO, but that YOUR EMPLOYER Pays out to you in return for years for your devoted service.
My father worked for a "Fortune 110" {top ten} company too, His "pension" is something he never paid into, but he gets from the company, now having received an equal number of years of pension as years of service!
THAT's what pi$$es ME off...those who pull those down pensions and yet call SS "welfare".
I have NEVER worked for a company that offered a pension, BUT I HAVE paid into, and will continue to pay into, SS. I EXPECT an "Entitlement" for paying into it all these years.
Its all interpretations of the "Clear English Language", in some cases.
*Sigh*
You are generalizing wildly from a single case, namely the case of your father. I would be willing to bet that most people with pensions did contribute to them, especially if they are in the public sector. As a public high school teacher in California for 34 years, 8% was deducted from my salary for the entire 34 years to help fund the pension, and there was also an employer match, all of it required by law.
And even in your father's case, I would distinguish between his completely employer-paid pension and "welfare". To me, welfare is like food stamps - paid for by the general taxpayer (you and I) - whereas your dad's pension is part of his compensation package which his company (not the voters) elected to use.
My 90 year old mother who paid insurance premiums for decades on the house finally had to file a claim when a bad storm damaged her roof. She was called "a taker" by the company. I saw then how completely twisted everything has gotten under this rhetoric of takers. losers and all the rest of it. My mom and everyone else with coverage is not getting it for free. You are paying for it and then have to go through the ordeal of being called a taker when you need to use what you've paid for.
................................... Oh, I'll get some little fraction of my money back, but nothing like what I paid in. ...................
You don't know that, because you don't know when you are going to die. If you die early, then your statement will turn out to have been correct. But if you live to a ripe old age, say 90, you will get back more than you paid in.
I have been drawing SSI for four years now but I paid in for close to fifty five years. I am positive that I will be dead before I get my original contributions back even with 0% return.
It will more than likely be offset by Medicare benefits greater than your contribution.
Try this definition: "Social welfare program, any of a variety of governmental programs designed to protect citizens from the economic risks and insecurities of life. The most common types of programs provide benefits to the elderly or retired, the sick or invalid, dependent survivors, mothers, the unemployed, the work-injured, and families. Methods of financing and administration and the scope of coverage and benefits vary widely among countries. "
Just because the method of financing the programs is via tax payments, does not change the nature of these things (SS, Medicare) being social welfare programs.
Also, do you want a SS/Medicare program where people only get back 100% of what they paid in? The gap in Medicare alone means that people are getting back more than what they paid.
I realize there is no changing your mind, but if you consider it "welfare" then I would encourage you to turn down both SS and Medicare when you are eligible, since you obviously don't want to be on "welfare".
I was at a large meeting yesterday to help a relative with changes in medical coverage.
Backstory: relatives spouse worked for a Fortune 100 company. (Actually in top ten) The company is transitioning company paid insurance for retirees to Medicare with additional financial support offered by the company to assist in the change. Several hundred in attendance
Before the meeting, people were milling around talking over coffee.
A group of younger retirees complained that they didn't want to go on welfare and Social Security (to them) was welfare. Not knowing them, I walked over and explained that all Americans pay into SS and will collect benefits at certain ages.
One man argued that he had his pension that his union fought hard to get. I asked if he also paid into SS, "YES, OF COURSE" he said. I told him that he will also get SS Benefits including Medicare. He loudly stated that he will not go on welfare. There was nothing else I could say, so I walked away
Reading many posts in C-D and seeing stories on the news, T see that more and more Social Security and Medicare are being called entitlements (I won't go farther than that idiot's claim of welfare)
Entitlement, my a$$! I worked and paid my taxes and Social Security deductions for almost 60 years. My money was supposed to be put in Trust for me, it wasn't but that's another ***** that I have. I earned my Social Security benefit over years and years of hard work. For many years 60-89 hours a week.
My benefits are not welfare. My benefits are not entitlements. My benefits are a pay out of an insurance policy that my employers and I paid for over that period of time
Why I am being taxed on payments that were taken out in my tax, I don't know.
But, I sure as Hell do know that it is not welfare or entitlements. I paid for it and I earned it!
End of rant
Yes! to everything.
I, too, am tired of those programs being referred to as "entitlements," at least in the way that appears to be defined today. In other words, those on SS retirement and Medicare are the only ones truly entitled, as opposed to those on Medicaid (which, curiously, always ends up off the table for "reform" when lumped in with SS and Medicare).
Get off the backs of seniors who worked all their lives for their current benefits and who, BTW, spent their working years paying for the "benefits" of those NOT entitled, in the form of a multitude of public assistance programs.
Oh, and memo to the younger generation who don't want to collect a SS check at the end of their working years because they "consider it welfare": Don't apply for it.
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