One upset woman!!!

[Richard K]

And I'm in my mid-30's, and paying SS and Medicare taxes for 20 years. And neither program will exist when I hit my mid-60's because people like her keep screaming for MO MONEY MO MONEY MO MONEY, well beyond anything that they paid into the system to begin with.

No sympathy here.

I don't see where she's asking for more of anything nor do I see her asking for your sympathy.
Social Security was sold to the U.S. as a retirement into which I and my employers paid into for 55 years. I'm sure I will never live long enough to collect anywhere near what I've paid into it. If anyone can live on what I collect each month please let me know how they're doing it. If you want to get upset about something watch the following:

Subject: Awesome Presentation (need to watch)




Take a look: A VERY short clip. Make sure you see the maps; they'll stop you cold


http://www.staged.com/video?v=Klmb

[Troublco]

Maybe it was supposed to be put away to grow. But it wasn't. Instead, the current recipients are getting transfer payments from the current payers. And the current recipients are receivng benefits well beyond what they actually paid in.

I'm not sure how it was supposed to "grow." There's no growth in government bonds, but that's not actually my problem. A given rate of return (or even giving back the money that my parents' generation paid in) is not my obligation. Maybe you've got a claim for all of the money you paid in, but that claim doesn't translate to an obligation by people younger than you. Your claim is against the people who are already collecting.

The current recipients have ALWAYS gotten what you call "transfer payments". That's the way the system was built; technically it's the original Ponzi scheme. Look who put it together - FDR and his cohorts. When they started it, the people who were collecting hadn't paid anything in. Either way, for quite some time there was money supporting this due to the number of people paying in vs. the number collecting. Now because the politicians (notably the Democrats, if you do the research) have raided it for their pet social programs the savings that were there are gone. Either way, sucks to be you because according to the law it is your obligation, and by extension of that your problem. The law says that you'll pay social security tax. So the "obligation" is toward everyone who works, and by extension pays taxes and social security. You don't have to like it; I doubt very many do. I don't expect to collect any SS and it was built in to my retirement package, part and parcel. I wish we could make the politicians operate under the same rules they put in place for us, but I doubt that'll happen either.