Ain't Socialism Great?

[slick4591]

Venesuela crisis back in the news.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Venesuela crisis back in the news.

Might get your chance in November to cast your ballot for a card carrying one.

 

[Jogeephus]

Venesuela crisis back in the news.

Might get your chance in November to cast your ballot for a card carrying one.

Just an interesting piece of trivia and nothing else. Did you know there are 9 counties in the country named Clinton and Bernie has beat Hillary in every one of them till she won Clinton county Kentucky yesterday? I'm not a Bernie fan I was rooting for his win in this county just for the irony of it all.

 

[hurleyjd]

How do you like your social security and medicare. Now do not tell me how much you paid in and deserve it. Good chance if you are drawing for about three years you have got it all back plus some. Also the USA is about as much socialism as it can be.
We all share in the cost of every thing the government does such as the police, fire, highway system, education and etc. Also my accountant is about as conservative as they come and he told me that the citizenry of the United States did not realize how close we were to completely falling apart in 2008 and would have if the government had not stepped in. There would have been several times in history that the United States faced total failure with out government intervention. Also right there are thousands of young families that are bankrupt as are small mfg that depended on the oil patch.

 

[Caustic Burno]

How do you like your social security and medicare. Now do not tell me how much you paid in and deserve it. Good chance if you are drawing for about three years you have got it all back plus some. Also the USA is about as much socialism as it can be.
We all share in the cost of every thing the government does such as the police, fire, highway system, education and etc. Also my accountant is about as conservative as they come and he told me that the citizenry of the United States did not realize how close we were to completely falling apart in 2008 and would have if the government had not stepped in. There would have been several times in history that the United States faced total failure with out government intervention. Also right there are thousands of young families that are bankrupt as are small mfg that depended on the oil patch.

I would have to live to 90 to break even no way I will ever get back what was paid in. I would gladly take my pay in tomorrow in a check for Edward Jones. I paid SS off for 33 years would have loved to had that in my 401 so all the C suckers that paid the piddling minimum or nothing wouldnt be drawing my money in welfare projects pulling in SSI.

 

[True Grit Farms]

If more folks would take the time and find a good accountant and tax lawyer this country would have to have a flat tax. This country is heading the same way as Venezuela, thanks to the liberals. Coal and other fossil fuels are way more efficient than wind, rain or the sun.

 

[hurleyjd]

How do you like your social security and medicare. Now do not tell me how much you paid in and deserve it. Good chance if you are drawing for about three years you have got it all back plus some. Also the USA is about as much socialism as it can be.
We all share in the cost of every thing the government does such as the police, fire, highway system, education and etc. Also my accountant is about as conservative as they come and he told me that the citizenry of the United States did not realize how close we were to completely falling apart in 2008 and would have if the government had not stepped in. There would have been several times in history that the United States faced total failure with out government intervention. Also right there are thousands of young families that are bankrupt as are small mfg that depended on the oil patch.

I would have to live to 90 to break even no way I will ever get back what was paid in. I would gladly take my pay in tomorrow in a check for Edward Jones. I paid SS off for 33 years would have loved to had that in my 401 so all the C suckers that paid the piddling minimum or nothing wouldnt be drawing my money in welfare projects pulling in SSI.

I am about your age (75) the max to pay on for SS taxes is $8260 with the cutoff at 118,000 for 2016. I suspect that you paid a whole lot less than that per the years you worked. 1958 You would only have paid $2499 in SS taxes because the cutoff limit was $35700. If cutoff limit grew a little higher each year. I suspect that your monthly check if you elected to retire at 65 would be about $2500. So you got back all that was paid in in 1958 with the first check. Now I would think that you paid in $165,000 over your working career. If you are drawing near the maximum now which would be about $2500 a month which would be $30000 a year then you would have received it all back in 5.5 years. I was wrong about 3 years. You and I had it pretty good If the young ones now will have paid in a lot more than you and I.

 

[Caustic Burno]

You left off the companies part as any good liberal would.
I could manage 400k much better than the government
At least I would get interest on my money and I don't need their
Medicare.

 

[TexasBred]

You left off the companies part as any good liberal would.
I could manage 400k much better than the government
At least I would get interest on my money and I don't need their
Medicare.

And you would have had it invested getting a fairly good return all those years. At 6% interest money doubles every 12 years. Really don't know if it's invested while your working or not.

 

[hurleyjd]

Here is a website showing the maximum you would pay into the SS fund over the years. This is the amount out of your pay check and not the company's match. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/cbb.html.

I started work in 1961 and retired in 2002. The first years was less than the 7% required now more on the level of 3%. You figure my working years and it will be 41. the amount I paid in at 7% for theses years would be $97,072 dollars. I elected to take early retirement at 62 which lowered the pension amount to 75% of what it would have been if I had waited until 65. This amount is $1620 dollars per month. So it took me 5 years to get all that I paid in not counting the company's contribution. If I had waited until 65 My check would have been $2160 per month I would have had all back I put in in 3.74 years. So at my age now at 75 I have drawn a total of $272160 so far. If I live to be 90 as CB stated I will have drawn $544320 which is 5.6 times what I paid in. Even with the company's contribution I would have still drawn 2.8 times what was put in.

 

[SJB]

Is you're point supposed to be that socialism is ok because CB got more back than he paid in?

If so, that's exactly why I am against socialism(regardless of whether it's true or not in this specific instance, if certainly happens). they have to take money from one person and give it to another, and any way you slice it that's wrong. Regardless of whether they need it or not, it's not their place to do it.

You also can't compare paying for fire and police and garbage pickup. Those are services that we the people pay for with our taxes, and are hardly an example of socialism.

 

[SJB]

Oh, and you might want to add about 3-4% compound interest to your calculations.

 

[hurleyjd]

For all of you younger than 65 you can go here and find out what your benefits would be when you retire.
https://faq.ssa.gov/link/portal/34011/3 ... e-benefits

 

[hurleyjd]

How do you like your social security and medicare. Now do not tell me how much you paid in and deserve it. Good chance if you are drawing for about three years you have got it all back plus some. Also the USA is about as much socialism as it can be.
We all share in the cost of every thing the government does such as the police, fire, highway system, education and etc. Also my accountant is about as conservative as they come and he told me that the citizenry of the United States did not realize how close we were to completely falling apart in 2008 and would have if the government had not stepped in. There would have been several times in history that the United States faced total failure with out government intervention. Also right there are thousands of young families that are bankrupt as are small mfg that depended on the oil patch.

I would have to live to 90 to break even no way I will ever get back what was paid in. I would gladly take my pay in tomorrow in a check for Edward Jones. I paid SS off for 33 years would have loved to had that in my 401 so all the C suckers that paid the piddling minimum or nothing wouldnt be drawing my money in welfare projects pulling in SSI.

If your wife never worked and never paid in a penny she can draw on yours and get as much as a woman that worked and paid in is that fair.

 

[slick4591]

What's kinda stuck in my craw right now is I will be able to draw reduced benefits in November when I turn 62 in October, which I expect. But, because I have a retirement income those benefits are cut even more.

You can't leave the employer's money out of the equation, either. I payed SS for employees for several years when I had a business. I had rather put that money in an interest bearing whatever, but I played by the rules. That money comes from someone's pocket, not out of the goodness of the gubmint's heart.

 

[slick4591]

If your wife never worked and never paid in a penny she can draw on yours and get as much as a woman that worked and paid in is that fair.

Who do you think should get the benefits if not the spouse? What about the lady that did work and can only draw one check. Of course she draws the higher amount and leaves the lower check to the gubmint.

Also, last account I had was if you had a spouse for more than 10 years they could also draw on your SS even if you are divorced. They would only draw for the amount of years you were married, tho.

 

[Dave]

It is base on the average age expectancy which is about 75. So for everyone who lives to be 90 there was someone who died at 60 and never drew a dime. Just like insurance. I have been paying auto insurance for nearly 50 years. I had one little fender bender clear back when I was 18 that couldn't have cost the insurance company $100. But they work on the average. Same with SS. You live longer and you draw money that someone who died earlier paid in.

 

[Caustic Burno]

What's kinda stuck in my craw right now is I will be able to draw reduced benefits in November when I turn 62 in October, which I expect. But, because I have a retirement income those benefits are cut even more.

You can't leave the employer's money out of the equation, either. I payed SS for employees for several years when I had a business. I had rather put that money in an interest bearing whatever, but I played by the rules. That money comes from someone's pocket, not out of the goodness of the gubmint's heart.

You got that right I would have to dig up what the Mrs. paid when she owned the business. It's double for the owner right out the gate for themselves. Again we would have been way ahead with it going into a 401 versus having to support non working liberal socialist programs.
The program has been robbed by the liberals to buy votes. It was set up for those who paid in not the alphabet programs being paid out of it since the mid sixties to support the leaches of society.
The original idea was altruistic the politicians kept hanging programs on it like Medicare Medicaid SSI for millions of Americans that never contributed one dime and they wonder why it is going broke.
It was supposed to be supplemental retirement income not a life support system.

 

[hurleyjd]

You missed the point I was trying to make that some people never paid in and draw a check. One would be the wife that never worked and did not pay in. She gets to draw about 1/2 of the husbands and when he dies if the woman is still living then she moves up to draw the late husbands total amount. Now if a woman works and pays in and is married her social security is never recognized if her husband was a high earner. She never realizes her contributions unless hers is greater than his and then he draws 1/2 on hers. The working woman's contributions is never figured in to help she and her husband draw a larger check. Your thoughts and statements are true so I am not trying to criticize you. Also under Richard Nixon's administration was when SSI was implemented. Why because the federal government realized that all of the states had a form of welfare for the blind disabled and over 65. There was a great difference in the benefits so SSI was created to give every one the same benefits. You have to be a pauper to draw SSI you can only have $2000 in assets.

 

[hurleyjd]

What's kinda stuck in my craw right now is I will be able to draw reduced benefits in November when I turn 62 in October, which I expect. But, because I have a retirement income those benefits are cut even more.

You can't leave the employer's money out of the equation, either. I payed SS for employees for several years when I had a business. I had rather put that money in an interest bearing whatever, but I played by the rules. That money comes from someone's pocket, not out of the goodness of the gubmint's heart.

The only ones that has their SS benefits reduced is government workers federal and local. I have a company pension and drew at 62 and still draw SS and pension without penalty. Started the company pension when I was 60 because of a company buying the company I worked for allowed it. I am a little guilty of taking government money because I worked for a company that did government contracts so really I never contributed any to the great government pot that we draw from. Only helped develop products for the defense of the country.