Should We Do Away With Social Security - Is It Welfare? (Bush, Congress)

[yakijy]

Some people say that we should abolish Social Security because it is a form of Welfare. I don't want or need Welfare, but I want back what I put in. The government can just pay me a straight 3% compounded interest on what I ALREADY PAID.
I know for a fact that financial planners are now not even figuring in SS benefits, saying that you cannot count on receiving them.
Will the politicians will use the war in Iraq as an excuse not to pay Social Security?
When Bush began his presidency, the National Debt was $5.727 trillion. In 7 years it has risen to $9.233 trillion, an increase of 3.56 trillion dollars, that we as Americans are responsible for. (A trillion is 1,000 billion.) The money has been used to start a war with a country that never attacked us, kill over a million people, injure and displace millions more, and provide us with thousands of disabled veterans. Anmerica's infrastructure is crumbling. Did Bush use the thousands of billions to rebuild it and provide American jobs? No. Did he use the money for healthcare or education? No. But he did provide trillions for his buddies on the coporate oil and defense boards. I guess we should be happy about that. Way to go Bush!
The national debt is currently going up by 1.48 billion dollars a day. ...

[Nea1]

I would rather my money go for my retirement which is about 30 years away. I would rather invest or 401k my own money, it is my retirement. Imagine how much I could have after 30 years, SS is alot of my check.

[yakijy]

I would not mind if the government stopped taking out social security from my paycheck and scrapped it altogether, if they would give me back what I already paid in - with some kind of interest.

[questioner2]

Considering the average American is terrible with money and a good forty percent of people over 62 years old, depend on Social Security for the majority of their retirement income, eliminating it would put a good percentage of our senior citizens on another form of welfare. I know I will depend on social security for a good percentage of my income when I retire in ten years.

Your social security deduction is paying for current retirees not going into a fund to pay for your future benefits.

Congresspeople who mess with social security are asking for trouble.

[Nea1]

Originally Posted by questioner2

Considering the average American is terrible with money and a good forty percent of people over 62 years old, depend on Social Security for the majority of their retirement income, eliminating it would put a good percentage of our senior citizens on another form of welfare. I know I will depend on social security for a good percentage of my income when I retire in ten years.

Your social security deduction is paying for current retirees not going into a fund to pay for your future benefits.

Congresspeople who mess with social security are asking for trouble.

So will there be any for me? And it should be a persons choice what they do and get for retirement. I am fairly good with my money, I don't trust the government with that money so I started saving in my early 20's. It is my responsibility to make sure I am taken care of.

[daveyjones]

Some people say that we should abolish Social Security because it is a form of Welfare.
---------------------------------
Oh my God....those people are total idiots and have no idea how the system works.
Its YOUR money,you paid into it for years,why shouldn't you get it back?

[paperhouse]

The fact is, we cannot ignore this. Again, from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office Report. GAO-08-395CG, U.S. Financial Condition and Fiscal Future Briefing

Growth in Constant dollars, 2007-2032:
GDP: 71%;
Social Security Spending: 127%;
Medicaid Spending: 224%;
Medicare Spending: 235%.

We can't take away the benefits people need, but there is no way we can pay for it.

What that shows is that if the Gross Domestic Product grows at a constant rate like is has for the past couple of decades, we will owe these three programs 586% more than what our country is worth.

We were supposed to have this conversation when Bush was elected in 2000. That money has been spent on wars that have accomplished little to nothing. Our children, our grand-children, and our children's grand-children's money has been spent.

[paperhouse]

Originally Posted by daveyjones

Some people say that we should abolish Social Security because it is a form of Welfare.
---------------------------------
Oh my God....those people are total idiots and have no idea how the system works.
Its YOUR money,you paid into it for years,why shouldn't you get it back?

Because it's gone. It's not there.

[Kuharai]

If anything, social security has been used as welfare. As far as "getting back what you paid in" - I think everyone should get one check cut to them EQUAL to the amount of SS they put in. And the program should be scrapped.

They keep raising the age, some people who've put in will never get the benefits - you know, the ones who DIE before retiring.

This is a program I would like to see scrapped. Did you know:

On January 31, 1940, the first monthly retirement check was issued to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, in the amount of $22.54. Miss Fuller, a Legal Secretary, retired in November 1939. She started collecting benefits in January 1940 at age 65 and lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975.

Ida May Fuller worked for three years under the Social Security program. The accumulated taxes on her salary during those three years was a total of $24.75. Her initial monthly check was $22.54. During her lifetime she collected a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits.

Credit to this by SSA.gov

I don't trust the government with that money so I started saving in my early 20's. It is my responsibility to make sure I am taken care of.

I started at 16 when I got my first job. My individual retirement account is pretty big now (only 20!)

[yakijy]

Originally Posted by questioner2

Considering the average American is terrible with money and a good forty percent of people over 62 years old, depend on Social Security for the majority of their retirement income, eliminating it would put a good percentage of our senior citizens on another form of welfare. I know I will depend on social security for a good percentage of my income when I retire in ten years.

Your social security deduction is paying for current retirees not going into a fund to pay for your future benefits.

Congresspeople who mess with social security are asking for trouble.

I agree that most Americans are terrible with money - look at the number of bankrupcies and foreclosures. Social Security was instituted with this in mind, because many elderly were living in abject poverty. I don't blame the average American, I blame the politicians who squander taxpayer's money for their greed and idelogical warfare.
One of Bush's goals was to replace SS with corporate 401K accounts. He wanted to deny SS payouts. He already boosted corporate healthcare profits with his Medicare bill.