Retirees on Social Security are getting screwed.

[Neubarth]

Consumer Price Index -April 2010

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All
Urban Consumers (CPI-U) declined 0.1 percent in April, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months,
the index increased 2.2 percent before seasonal adjustment.

The index for energy decreased 1.4 percent in April and accounted for
the seasonally adjusted decline in the all items index. The indexes
for gasoline and natural gas both decreased significantly,
outweighing increases in the indexes for fuel oil and electricity.

The food index increased 0.2 percent in April, while the index for
all items less food and energy was unchanged. The index for meats,
poultry, fish, and eggs rose sharply in April and accounted for the
food increase; other grocery store food groups were mixed and the
index for food away from home rose slightly. Within all items less
food and energy, the indexes for recreation, airline fares, and
medical care all rose in April. Offsetting these increases were
declines in the indexes for apparel and for household furnishings and
operations. The continuing stability of the index for all items less
food and energy has resulted in an increase over the last 12 months
of 0.9 percent, the smallest 12-month increase since January 1966.

 

[Neubarth]

We have been seeing food go UP and the price of cars and computers go down. The overwhelming majority of Social Security recipients are living on those payments alone and they are supposed to be indexed to the rate of inflation. Unfortunately, the one thing that they can not do without is food, and it has been the one thing that keeps going UP and UP and UP in price while the SS payments are fairly steady state because there has been no inflation according to the US Gov. People just can not make it on SS anymore unless they are eating dog food. Even that has gone up and up in price.

Welcome to America. Unlike the Chinese, we do not eat dogs. Instead we produce food for dogs from pig intestines and other parts of the animal that we as humans usually do not eat, and then sell it to 72 percent of our senior citizens to eat.

 

[Granny]

Well, those on SS did NOT get a cost-of-living raise this year nor will they get a cost-of-living raise next year. That's already been announced.

 

[JWBooth]

I sympathise. Yet they are reaping the reward for a lifetime in believing that the state exists to take care of the individual, his needs and desires from cradle to grave. At best a fallacy, at its base, a cruel lie.

 

[Barb]

You know, it isn't only senior citizens who suffer from this. Most of the working families in this country can't do without the staples you mention, and they haven't seen real wages rise in for.fucking.ever.
For seniors who depend on SS, it is a bad thing, but SS is event based, rather than needs based, and a whole lot of seniors who receive it do not rely on it, and would not be poor without it.

 

[Barb]

I sympathise. Yet they are reaping the reward for a lifetime in believing that the state exists to take care of the individual, his needs and desires from cradle to grave. At best a fallacy, at its base, a cruel lie.

It is an entitlement program, which does not mean what the term would seem to imply. People contribute to the pool, and should rightfully expect to draw from it.

You want to go to dog-eat-dog every man for himself and fuck anyone else? Prepare to reap the results.

 

[Bill O'Olberman]

What about a 23 year old like me whos got decades of paying into Social Security now? Will I even have SS around when I retire? Will they raise the retirement age and decrease benefits to people who receive payments in the future? Will they just start taxing me more? Im getting really fucked over.

 

[Barb]

What about a 23 year old like me whos got decades of paying into Social Security now? Will I even have SS around when I retire? Will they raise the retirement age and decrease benefits to people who receive payments in the future? Will they just start taxing me more? Im getting really fucked over.

You're fucked. So am I if it makes you feel better, I'm 47, and worked since I was twelve, on the books.
Nope.
Probably, if it exists at all.
Maybe, if it exists at all.
Yes, you are. Welcome to the Korporate states of Amerikka.
Hows that invisible hand treating you?

 

[JWBooth]

What about a 23 year old like me whos got decades of paying into Social Security now? Will I even have SS around when I retire? Will they raise the retirement age and decrease benefits to people who receive payments in the future? Will they just start taxing me more? Im getting really fucked over.

Assuming that nothing much changes, you are getting a lifetime of being screwed. Start your own savings plan now. I know it's tough, to imagine having to make your way 40 or more years from now, but its better to start now, than wait till later.

It is an entitlement program, which does not mean what the term would seem to imply. People contribute to the pool, and should rightfully expect to draw from it.

You want to go to dog-eat-dog every man for himself and fuck anyone else? Prepare to reap the results.

Its a ponzi scheme. What each worker is taxed to pay into the program is but a pittance of what they ultimately receive in return. Today's "contributor" is paying for today's recipient.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

What about a 23 year old like me whos got decades of paying into Social Security now? Will I even have SS around when I retire? Will they raise the retirement age and decrease benefits to people who receive payments in the future? Will they just start taxing me more? Im getting really fucked over.

You're fucked dude....my only suggestion to you is to put away at least 10% of your gross pay for the rest of your life.....keep it liquid. Invest in commodities when the country is at war...invest in stocks when we are not in a war.

Basically what you pay into social security is used to pay out benefits to todays retirees because of LBJ's failure back in the 60's. By the time you retire there won't be any SS left...it'll all be paid to China to service our debt.

 

[editec]

What about a 23 year old like me whos got decades of paying into Social Security now? Will I even have SS around when I retire? Will they raise the retirement age and decrease benefits to people who receive payments in the future? Will they just start taxing me more? Im getting really fucked over.

I felt exactly the same way until I got sick and discovered that social security was there for me.

Not that I'm entirely dismissing your concerns, of course, Bill. Believe me, I am as concerned about you not getting screwed because if the kids of your generation are screwed, my kids are right there with ya'.


The government we have now (and have had for the last 40 years that I know of) is so fucking corrupt that you have every reason to worry about being screwed.

Social security is a great idea but it depends upon an ever growing economy to make it work from generation to generation.

But conditions other than social security itself (read the steady corription of government by big capital) makes that system seem doomed to fail.

FREE TRADE is the biggest threat to your social security, incidently.

Why?

Because if your kids are going to be competing with workers in third world shitholes, they won't be making enough money to support their aging parents.

Free trade is, believe it or not, the greatest SCAM in US history.

The floundering fathers understood this perfectly, which is exactly why they ran their entire FEDERAL budget mostly from tariffs on foreign goods, and taxes on locally produced alcohol.

Remember, we didn't even have INCOME taxes, until 1913.

 

[Barb]

Its a ponzi scheme. What each worker is taxed to pay into the program is but a pittance of what they ultimately receive in return. Today's "contributor" is paying for today's recipient.

Yesterday's (and some of today's) recipients didn't contribute at all. Take that, and consider that with COLA raises many of today's recipients get back more than they paid in. For past generations this was a winning program. For the people paying today, considering the future, it kind of sucks. It wouldn't be so bad if politicians didn't draw from it (and yes, I know a dem started that shit, but no rep stopped dipping in either) it would have remained a viable social INSURANCE program.

Do you really think we don't need or shouldn't have a social safety net? Maybe we could be like China back in the day (within my lifetime) of the famine, when kids didn't really LIKE sleepovers. Hell, them that has, has, and them that don't eat their young.

Them that has rely on them that don't though sparky. You didn't see poor people jumping out of high rises during the market crash that preceded the Great Depression. Poor people were already on the ground floor, and had ways to cope. Its the masses that support industry through purchases. When we have to forgo the shit that rich people provide, you're all just AVON salespeople with only each other for buyers.
So, how's that invisible hand treating YOU?

 

[Oddball]

What about a 23 year old like me whos got decades of paying into Social Security now? Will I even have SS around when I retire? Will they raise the retirement age and decrease benefits to people who receive payments in the future? Will they just start taxing me more? Im getting really fucked over.

You're fucked. So am I if it makes you feel better, I'm 47, and worked since I was twelve, on the books.
Nope.
Probably, if it exists at all.
Maybe, if it exists at all.
Yes, you are. Welcome to the Korporate states of Amerikka.
Hows that invisible hand treating you?

I'll take the invisible hand over the one that's digging in my pocket to fund a Ponzi scheme that I'll never see a dime from.

 

[JWBooth]

Yesterday's (and some of today's) recipients didn't contribute at all. Take that, and consider that with COLA raises many of today's recipients get back more than they paid in. For past generations this was a winning program. For the people paying today, considering the future, it kind of sucks. It wouldn't be so bad if politicians didn't draw from it (and yes, I know a dem started that shit, but no rep stopped dipping in either) it would have remained a viable social INSURANCE program.

Do you really think we don't need or shouldn't have a social safety net? Maybe we could be like China back in the day (within my lifetime) of the famine, when kids didn't really LIKE sleepovers. Hell, them that has, has, and them that don't eat their young.

Them that has rely on them that don't though sparky. You didn't see poor people jumping out of high rises during the market crash that preceded the Great Depression. Poor people were already on the ground floor, and had ways to cope. Its the masses that support industry through purchases. When we have to forgo the shit that rich people provide, you're all just AVON salespeople with only each other for buyers.
So, how's that invisible hand treating YOU?

What I think is that SS should regularly be pointed out as the scam that it is: an enforced method of state sponsored poverty. That folks ought to plan for the future. If you chose not to, whine not unto me about the result.

 

[Barb]

What about a 23 year old like me whos got decades of paying into Social Security now? Will I even have SS around when I retire? Will they raise the retirement age and decrease benefits to people who receive payments in the future? Will they just start taxing me more? Im getting really fucked over.

You're fucked. So am I if it makes you feel better, I'm 47, and worked since I was twelve, on the books.
Nope.
Probably, if it exists at all.
Maybe, if it exists at all.
Yes, you are. Welcome to the Korporate states of Amerikka.
Hows that invisible hand treating you?

I'll take the invisible hand over the one that's digging in my pocket to fund a Ponzi scheme that I'll never see a dime from.

Make sure you diversify what pockets your keeping your cash in. While protecting one, the other is being robbed quite blind.

 

[Neubarth]

As long as we have the FED and interest free borrowing from them, the United States will be able to fund Social Security. Those of you who are afraid that Social Security will run out of funds have nothing to fear.

As I have pointed out before on hundreds of occasions, when the US sells bonds or notes to the FED, the FED takes the interest paid and deposits it directly into the Treasury. Effectively, when we sell bonds and notes to the FED they are interest free. Consequently there is no appreciable cost of borrowing from the FED. We can fund Social Security from the FED for the next hundred years.

 

[Granny]

Well, I'm on Social Security - paid into the system all my working life - but I think it needs to be phased out. There are other means that our younger workforce could have in order to be comfortable in retirement.

Congress, itself, has raped the hell out of the program. They've "borrowed" from the SS funds time and again to put the funds toward other projects or programs - always with the mindset that they would have plenty of time to repay those "loans." And yet they haven't repaid.

As the Boomers grew into adulthood they didn't want or need children standing in the way of their "progress." They had a lot fewer children that prior generations had. And legalized abortion was a great tool as well.

I DON"T WANT ANY ABORTION DISCUSSIONS. THIS THREAD WAS STARTED BY SOMEONE ELSE AND IS ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY. THANKS.

 

[uscitizen]

Anyone who expects to live just on their SS income have screwed themselves by not setting up alternative retirement income sources.

 

[boedicca]

SS has been a Ponzi Scheme for years. At best, taxpayers receive a paltry 1.3% return on their "contributions" when they retire - while the massive increase in government spending and debt fueled by the SS pool deflates the value of their benefits.

It's time to privatize retirement ala the Chilean model.

 

[editec]

SS has been a Ponzi Scheme for years. At best, taxpayers receive a paltry 1.3% return on their "contributions" when they retire - while the massive increase in government spending and debt fueled by the SS pool deflates the value of their benefits.

It's time to privatize retirement ala the Chilean model.

Tell me more about that Chilean model, please.

Always interested in discovering new social solutions to society's problems.