Well, actually ss is not something the gov merely GIVES to people. Most people have worked a 30 or 40 years and have paid their MONEY into SS. Now the gov. is paying it back in increments. The people who die before they reach ss age just donated 30 or 40 years of hard labor to the rest of us orr to some illegal who stole his identity.
Well, you're half right. We pay in 6.2% and employers match it (of course, a legitimate argument could be made that if the employer didn't have to pay it they would give us raises but that's going out on a limb).
Social Security is more of an insurance than anything else. It's a contract between you and the government that you will have some type of sustaining income in your old age until the day you die. And like any insurance if you don't collect the money stays in the pot until someone else does.
But no matter what, like Homeowners or Car insurance it's there when you need it. Is it broken? No, but it needs tweaking to remain viable. I'm not opposed to paying benefits on a sliding scale to who needs them, bumping up the retirement age and lift the ceiling from $106,500.
But I will say that it's rediculous that some on this board are just peachy
with extending tax cuts for the wealthy that will increase the deficit and we will need to pay back (oh yes we will) and yet will refuse to help out Senior citizens who are on fixed incomes and really need it.
And anyone who says they're beyond ever needing it must sure live a charmed life.