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"Thank you for clarifying that. Even though people do pay in to SS, it is not theirs to pass on to their children."
Social Security will pay for children if they are minors. My father died when he was 60 and left 2 children under the age of 18. Our mother had already died years before. Social Security paid (a very modest) pension to myself and my sister until we were 21. It helped us pay living expenses so our modest inheritance could be used to pay for our college tuition. It saved our lives - literally.
Social Security is not meant to be a nest egg - it's a safety net only. This is true of every country in the world that has a similar system (which would be all the developed world). In third world countries where there is no social security-type system, the elderly have to rely on their children to look after them or end up begging in the streets. This fact of life is one of the main reasons people in poor countries have so many children (they cannot afford to look after and feed): they just hope, in old age, one of those kids will take care of them.
The biggest problem with Social Security is that it was designed when the average life expectancy was 62 for men and 65 for women. Our life expectancy now is 74 for men and 79.5 for women. Living expenses for 12 to 14 years is substantial so it's no wonder we are having trouble paying for it.
"Thank you for clarifying that. Even though people do pay in to SS, it is not theirs to pass on to their children."
Social Security will pay for children if they are minors. My father died when he was 60 and left 2 children under the age of 18. Our mother had already died years before. Social Security paid (a very modest) pension to myself and my sister until we were 21. It helped us pay living expenses so our modest inheritance could be used to pay for our college tuition. It saved our lives - literally.
Social Security is not meant to be a nest egg - it's a safety net only. This is true of every country in the world that has a similar system (which would be all the developed world). In third world countries where there is no social security-type system, the elderly have to rely on their children to look after them or end up begging in the streets. This fact of life is one of the main reasons people in poor countries have so many children (they cannot afford to look after and feed): they just hope, in old age, one of those kids will take care of them.
What's the problem with it being a tax? I have to say I don't understand why some people go so crazy about paying a tax. Nobody likes paying income tax but I think most people don't want to live in a country where - while they are trying to raise their children they also have to pay to feed and clothe and house their parents (because Social Security wouldn't exist). Where they couldn't actually get to work.. because there is no infrastructure, no roads, no bridges. Where their children can't go to school unless they are the tiny minority of the very rich.
Have you ever lived or travelled in the third world? Latin America, Africa or Asia? It is a real eye-opener. No income tax (or if there is, nobody rich pays it) and there is just a tiny, tiny percentage of the very rich (housed in enclaves, surrounded by oh-so-attractive barbed wire) and everybody else living in poverty and misery.
Go to nearly any developing country and you'll see this.
Where I live now (Cambodia) , I see a lot of old folk pushing carts around the streets, begging, eating scraps of food from the rubbish - all about the same age as my mother.
no safety net or jobs for these people - do we really want this in our own countries?
My ex-boss, a French guy, is a bigwig in the Libertarian Party - which is a worldwide movement of rich people who don't want to pay income tax. He was the son of a rich guy, married a South American heiress whose father gave him a job. He wrote a (self-published) book about his libertarian views, claiming he was a self-made man... who had earned his living from the "sweat of his brow".. his brow had nothing to do with it, I'm sure, he was as lazy as anything!
He and I got into a discussion about libertarianism one day (which espouses legalizing drugs, letting children work for a living, etc.). I asked him who'd pick up his garbage if he didn't pay taxes. Oh, he'd pay someone to pick up his garbage. Cheapskate used to take the bus to work. How would he get to work? Oh, if he didn't have to pay taxes, he could pay for a chauffeur. How would we build roads for him to get to work if he didn't pay taxes? Well, he would organize a group of neighbors, using the same route, to chip in to build the road. Obviously, he didn't know how roads cost.. Then I asked him what would happen to the elderly and disabled people who couldn't earn their keep and he said they could live off public charity.
I used to do his taxes for him... he never, ever gave anything to charity. And he had over $100million at the time inherited by himself and his wife...
Not very practical not having income tax.. even for the very rich.
Not very practical not having income tax.. even for the very rich.
What is very practical is a consumption tax, a sales tax, on everything. That's the only way to successfully tax the rich. The rich know this and that's why we're brainwashed into believing it's a bad idea.
What is very practical is a consumption tax, a sales tax, on everything. That's the only way to successfully tax the rich. The rich know this and that's why we're brainwashed into believing it's a bad idea.
Agreed.
I know that I would be much better off if I had never had to pay into SS. I would have invested that same money as I did others and would be retired already.
Looking back at how much I have paid into Social Security in the last 35 years, and looking ahead to the probabilty that there may be nothing there in 15 years, sometimes I have to wonder if I couldn't have done better with the money through the years......either paying down the mortgage or putting into savings, etc.
On the other hand, there are many people that depend on their SS for food, housing and medications. Also, the pictures from the 30's of soup lines and widespread poverty haunt me. Would we be better going back to that??
No.
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