SOCIAL SECURITY – NOW CALLED ‘FEDERAL BENEFIT PAYMENT’/ENTITLEMENT!
Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.
The government refers to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.” This isn’t a benefit – its earned income! Clinton added the law that I pay income taxes on my Social Security. Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes. If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that’s close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.
If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both your and your employer’s contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you’d have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved! This is your personal investment.
Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you’d receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month. That’s almost three times more than today’s average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration (Google it – it’s a fact).
And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you’re 98 if you retire at age 65)!
I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts. Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever did.
They took our money and used it elsewhere. They “forgot” that it was OUR money they were taking.
They didn’t have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them.
And they didn’t pay interest on the debt they assumed.
And recently, they’ve told us that the money won’t support us for very much longer.
But is it our fault they misused our investments?
And now, to add insult to injury, they’re calling it a “benefit,” as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.
Just because they “borrowed” the money, doesn’t mean that our investments were a charity! Let’s take a stand.
We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government – Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going, for the sake of those who “earned it”.
Call it what it is: “Our Earned Retirement Income.”
A Conservative View 
As a matter of fact, a lot of people who never earned a dime in their lives collect Social Security. My daughter is one of them… She is permanently disabled and receives a monthly SSI check of about $450.
In my opinion, that sort of payment should be provided by our government under the auspices of the Constitutional preamble, “promote the general Welfare.” The real question in my mind is, how should they pay for these kinds of conditions?
There should really be two separate “accounts” (if you will). If the term Social Security should be applied to one of those, then it should be applied to a secure net for folks who truly need some form of support, like those with permanent disability. The other should be called something like Mandated Employee Savings Plan…
Looking at the history behind why Roosevelt floated the SS bill in the first place, I get it a little bit. But, realizing just how socialist the “social security” system has become, I’m not sure he would even recognize it today.
Tim, our system should always take care of those who are unable to work. Sadly we have 2,000,000 new people on SSI in the last two years and most are able-bodied people who can do most any king of work. FDR would roll over in his grave if he could see how Congress robbed and raped the system he initiated to protect the old and needy Americans.
I’m pretty sure, as always, that we are agreeing… 🙂