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...well, if you only were to get back exactly what you paid in, yes it wouldn't be an entitlement...just whip out that pesky calculator and you'll see, you get back way, way more than you put it...=...entitlement..
Try including interest on that money the government has collected and never forget many people do not live long enough to collect or do not collect all their money. Yes, many do get back more than they paid in but that is the deal the Government made and if they want to change the deal for people just starting out then that is fine but for those that have paid into it for all their lives that is not an option, period. FYI, when it comes to living longer, that is not entirely true, only the wealthy are living a lot longer, the working class have not made as big of gains and the poor die as fast as they ever have.
Casper
I find it interesting that people think they can invest in their own retirement fund and make it grow but discount the fact that the government could/should be able to do the same thing with the money they collect for S.S. But they don't. They started putting the S.S. funds collected into the general fund when the Baby Boomers started contributing instead of investing it. So now we'll left with the government's poor management decision not to invest. If they had kept those funds collected invested and in a lock box just for S.S. we'd have plenty to go around for all the hardworking people who paid faithfully into the system.
This whole 'entitlement' thing has bothered me for a long time - I might be the first one in my family to actually collect social security - father died at 46, mom died at 53, my older brother died at 61 and here I am at 63 just struggling to live to 66 (that's what ss told me was my retirement age). I think (just my opinion) that a good majority of people die before they reach retirement .... and they 'donated' all that money over the years to those lucky enough to live long enough.
Oh, and lets not forget the guy, where the only thing wrong with him is, that he can't read .. 32 years old, collecting his little $500.00 a month check .. Imagine that ..
No Entitlements here .. Oh wait
That's not the same thing. Disability money does not come from the Social Security trust fund, even though it is administered by the Social Security Administration. SSI or Disability is not paid based on what one has paid in because what is paid in DOES go into the Social Security Trust Fund.
entitlement is a dirty word used by politicians to create further divisions among people.
i pay into social security my whole life. when i reach 65 or whatever the age is, i pull out less than what i paid in my whole life.
if i go to the bank and deposit money week after week, one would assume i have the right to pull that money out when i need it.
social security is more like insurance then anything else.
there is no such thing as an entitlement that you have to pay into your whole life to get.
an entitlement is something handed to you like food stamps or a 75,000 year job for a dropout(walker relative).
Fixed that for ya. (sit down sometime and calculate how much better off you'd be if your social security taxes went into an IRA)
And if you think social security isn't an entitlement program then call up the Social Security office and ask them what your "balance" is in your social security acccount. It $0.00 regardless of how much you've paid into it. There is no money in it. You pay social security taxes which are 100% used to pay out benefits to others. It's income redistribution and most definately an entitlement program.
Oh, and lets not forget the guy, where the only thing wrong with him is, that he can't read .. 32 years old, collecting his little $500.00 a month check .. Imagine that ..
No Entitlements here .. Oh wait
This isn't SS, it's most likely disability payments. And if he cannot read, there must be a damn good reason for his being on disability, which isn't that easy to qualify for. Eye problems? Dyslexia? Serious learning disabilities? You don't know. It's easy to slam people when you don't know or care enough to find out what problems they may have. Sympathy and empathy are foreign concepts anymore.
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