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yeah? i havent heard that aspect mentioned before. id like to see a link to info regarding how many years people typically worked back then compared to now.
Probably there is no info available yet for early contributions. I would venture to guess that the first half of my social security contributions were on $1.00 per hour labor or less. So I wasn't surprised my first years benefits were $68.00 per month. What did surprise me was the social security was still in operation. I really didn't think I would get anything. Speaking last week to a widow friend of mine on the phone, she received a letter from the social security informing her that they had made a mistake on her benefits she had been receiving for 51 months on her deceased husbands account and this months check would be $277. less and all future benefits would be $27. pre month less. It is difficult to budget when your fixed income is not consistant. IMO
It doesn't matter what city, county, state, federal, retirement program is iniated, they are all begun with good intentions. What does matters is the amount of time before corruption sneaks into the program. It isn't the program that is unsustainable, it is the amount of the corruption involved that is unsustainable to pay for. All programs need oversight and therein lies our problem. IMHO
I feel very sad for people who feel the compulsive need to conserve every penny that falls into their wallet when they have the income to pay their bills and still put aside savings every month. It seems to me like a form of hoarding--a mental illness.
I agree with this, but I'd say consumerism is by far the more common mental illness these days.
Non-savers like to bring up stories of millionaires who won't turn the heat on...but how many well off people actually live like that vs. the percentage of poor people who blow money on non-necessities like tattoos, cigarettes, alcohol, pot etc.
I agree with this, but I'd say consumerism is by far the more common mental illness these days.
Non-savers like to bring up stories of millionaires who won't turn the heat on...but how many well off people actually live like that vs. the percentage of poor people who blow money on non-necessities like tattoos, cigarettes, alcohol, pot etc.
The thing is that poor people, whenever they get money spend it like crazy and then back to the same lifestyle of poverty. People fail to figure out whether they can afford to eat out daily or whether they really need a new car when they dont really earn that much. Expecting them to save is too much when getting into debt is that much easier. Until we tighten the screw on loans, Americans will not save. But then our country is run by big Banks and they thrive on debt.
I think that the millionaire who won't turn the heat above 55 degrees or replace the torn and tattered 30 year old window shade when a new one costs under $10 is as ridiculous
sooooo you find a fictitious person that doesn't really exist to be ridiculous?
ok, maybe a couple exist but seriously so few to use in a serious manner.
The thing is that poor people, whenever they get money spend it like crazy and then back to the same lifestyle of poverty. People fail to figure out whether they can afford to eat out daily or whether they really need a new car when they dont really earn that much. Expecting them to save is too much when getting into debt is that much easier. Until we tighten the screw on loans, Americans will not save. But then our country is run by big Banks and they thrive on debt.
Probably there is no info available yet for early contributions.
Of course there is -- whether for you individually or for the SS program as a whole.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluff_Dweller
I would venture to guess that the first half of my social security contributions were on $1.00 per hour labor or less.
Those and all your earnings since would be indexed (using a WAGE index, not a PRICE index) to put them into current terms, then an average of your 35 years of highest earnings would be taken. That's the number that benefit formulas will be applied to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluff_Dweller
What did surprise me was the social security was still in operation. I really didn't think I would get anything.
That's because you paid too much attention to shamelessly lying partisan shills. The most likely scenario is that everyone alive today will receive every single penny of scheduled SS benefits once they become eligible and apply for them. The best way to undermine that would be to give a book of matches to people who think we must burn down the village in order to save the village. You can often recognize such people by the "R" after their names. "R's" hate Social Security because it is the most popular and successful social insurance program in the history of the world and many older Americans have for decades quite properly associated the program with people having a "D" after their names and voted accordingly. The R's are now worried that what they have called Obamacare will turn out the same way, which is also quite possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluff_Dweller
It doesn't matter what city, county, state, federal, retirement program is iniated, they are all begun with good intentions. What does matters is the amount of time before corruption sneaks into the program. It isn't the program that is unsustainable, it is the amount of the corruption involved that is unsustainable to pay for.
LOL! What sort of corruption has snuck into the SS pension program? Are you going to come with the usual mindless claptrap that Congress has stolen all the money and spent it? If so, please provide at the same time a statement of what you think entities such as corporations and school boards do with the cash proceeeds of their frequent bond sales.
I agree with this, but I'd say consumerism is by far the more common mental illness these days.
People are consumers. Consumerism is a roughly century-old corporate profiteering strategy that has recently been used to enlist the aid of workers in the process of arranging their own destruction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mysticaltyger
Non-savers like to bring up stories of millionaires who won't turn the heat on...but how many well off people actually live like that vs. the percentage of poor people who blow money on non-necessities like tattoos, cigarettes, alcohol, pot etc.
Savings are a residual. Large and still growing numbers in the population enjoy no such residual at all. By the way, please post a list of everything you spent money on last month so that I can tell you which of them was in fact a non-necessity. Surely I am competent to make such decisions on your behalf if you are competent to make them for all these others.
Last edited by oaktonite; 07-03-2013 at 08:26 AM..
The thing is that poor people, whenever they get money spend it like crazy and then back to the same lifestyle of poverty. People fail to figure out whether they can afford to eat out daily or whether they really need a new car when they dont really earn that much. Expecting them to save is too much when getting into debt is that much easier. Until we tighten the screw on loans, Americans will not save. But then our country is run by big Banks and they thrive on debt.
Good lord! All of this is utter babble and nonsense based on inane misunderstandings and stereotypes. Low-income people likely manage their money better than you do. They have to. Their chief problem after all is that they have so little of this money stuff to start out with. Making it go a long way is one of their adaptive specialties. Debt and credit (they are actualy the same thing, you know) are meanwhile provinces of the already wealthy who use it to grow and expand their wealth even further. Perhaps they just want to keep club membership small.
Americans don't save because they've been deprived of incentive. With government programs that take the teeth out of poor money management and a profligate lifestyle, people save less. With a culture geared towards consumption, people save less. When charity is no longer the role of the family and local community, people save less.
People are consumers. Consumerism is a roughly century-old corporate profiteering strategy that has recently been used to enlist the aid of workers in the process of arranging their own destruction.
Agreed. But it's time for humanity to start using the brains they were born with instead of accepting this insane state of affairs as normal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oaktonite
Savings are a residual. Large and still growing numbers in the population enjoy no such residual at all. By the way, please post a list of everything you spent money on last month so that I can tell you which of them was in fact a non-necessity. Surely I am competent to make such decisions on your behalf if you are competent to make them for all these others.
It's certainly true that it's harder for people to save. I know that's true for me. Sure, I blow money on stuff...but I only make 45.5K per year in the high cost San Francisco Bay Area, yet I sock away >13K per year. Most people can save something if they really want to. Problem is, they don't really want to, as your first statement implies. Why is it that in 3rd World countries like China, people can save 30% of their incomes, but Americans can only save 3%. Something's not right there.
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