My Mom Worked Her Whole Life, But Only Gets My Dad's Social Security — Feels Like a Scam

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Glad I found this thread. Learned something new to today.

So SS is like insurance not a pension or savings system. So if you live long, you benefit the most. But if you die young, you don’t get a penny. Makes sense!

But if you die young, your survivors may benefit. And SS also pays out if you become disabled and can no longer work.

Also, something that a lot of people don't know is that if you were married for X number of years (I don't know how many) then divorce, you are entitled to a portion of your Ex's SS benefits after they retire and you are of retirement age.

10 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How can we communicate this idea to the public? As I mentioned I never thought of it that way, I thought of it as a retirement benefit. The idea of greater good to the society seems positive however many people think it's a retirement plan, including myself! I am not going to debate if its good or bad for society but if everyone thought of it that way i think we would see either greater support or possibly lower support.

Greater support than...87% of the public?

https://www.nirsonline.org/reports/socialsecurity2024/#:~:text=Americans%20overwhelmingly%20support%20Social%20Security,term%20sustainability%20of%20Social%20Security.

The reason you see such broad based support, I think, is because for the bottom 60% or so of Americans (in terms of income), it functionally is their retirement plan, and does that job well enough all things considered. For the next 30% on the income scale, it is a significant source of income during retirement, probably making the difference in being able to take trips, buy nice things for grandkids, add to college savings, etc. And then there is the top 10%, who see it as a way to steal their hard earned money by giving it to poor freeloaders.

Again, it was designed this way from the start- everyone pays for it, and everyone gets benefits at a certain age. That's why it has such broad-based support. How people choose to think of it, or how outsiders choose to describe it, SSA can't really do anything about that at a certain point. Behind the scenes, yes absolutely a huge part of the reason it fundamentally works is because of actuarial tables and people like your father, who die earlier than their expected age. But as others have said, on average that happens much more often with lower income people, because on average they live significantly shorter lives.

Sure, there’s broad support for Social Security in general, but that doesn’t mean people think it shouldn’t change. If you actually look at generational data, it’s a different story.

According to a recent Newsweek article, millennials and Gen Z are turning against the current Social Security system, and the split is pretty clear: younger Americans are questioning whether they’ll ever see the benefits they’re paying into — or whether the program is even sustainable long term. https://www.newsweek.com/young-americans-turn-against-boomers-over-social-security-1852732

So yeah, boomers and older Gen X might overwhelmingly support keeping it as-is, but younger generations don’t trust the system and want serious reform. That doesn’t mean no safety net — it just means the structure doesn’t match how we live and work today.

What it means is that younger people are victims of a decades-long misinformation campaign intended to undermine support for SS.

The SS program is actually a huge success story, whose problems are completely solvable by raising the cap on earnings that are taxed. That is, by taxing wealthier people at the same rate as middle and lower- middle class people. But our capitalist overlords can't have that, thus the mission to destroy the program. I'm sorry younger people are falling for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

Oh the burden you bear you poor dear! How do you get through each day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

Actually, no. Most of your missions in taxes went to defense spending to protect your wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

If you think you have paid "millions" on OASDI taxes, you are exceedingly stupid. This year, the earnings maximum is $176,100. The OASDI employee tax rate is 6.2%. That means that the most an individual employee will pay in OASDI taxes this year is $10,918. Even if the earnings cap had been the same for the past 35 years (which it obviously wasn't), you will have paid a grand total of $382,137.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

If you think you have paid "millions" on OASDI taxes, you are exceedingly stupid. This year, the earnings maximum is $176,100. The OASDI employee tax rate is 6.2%. That means that the most an individual employee will pay in OASDI taxes this year is $10,918. Even if the earnings cap had been the same for the past 35 years (which it obviously wasn't), you will have paid a grand total of $382,137.

In fairness to rich PP, I am sure she was including income taxes she has paid in the "millions."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

STFU you ingrate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

STFU you ingrate.

One of the wildest things that has come with the conservative movement is people in 3000 square foot houses in beautiful suburbs, with millions in retirement savings, looking around and saying to themselves "this is bulls--t" as they assess the world. The deep resentment they apparently feel blows my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your mother should have applied for your dad’s SS as soon as he passed away. She missed out on over 15 years of benefits because she didn’t research her benefits. The system isn’t broken.

ha I came here to say this exact thing. Maybe her child (you) failed her because you let her get into her late 70s without looking into this or understanding. You are telling me your expectation is that that married people should get to collect BOTH peoples SS until BOTH of them pas away? I'd vote no to that bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How embarassing to be OP, and post about your ignorance, susceptibility to propaganda, and inability to research anything basic on the internet.

+1

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

Show me the data to support the bolded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

STFU you ingrate.

One of the wildest things that has come with the conservative movement is people in 3000 square foot houses in beautiful suburbs, with millions in retirement savings, looking around and saying to themselves "this is bulls--t" as they assess the world. The deep resentment they apparently feel blows my mind.

Beautifully said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

STFU you ingrate.

One of the wildest things that has come with the conservative movement is people in 3000 square foot houses in beautiful suburbs, with millions in retirement savings, looking around and saying to themselves "this is bulls--t" as they assess the world. The deep resentment they apparently feel blows my mind.

Agree 100%.

I see many friends, family, acquaintances complaining and talking about right wing “anger” and I cannot wrap my head around what they are so upset about. Some are rich, professionally successful. Others are solidly middle class but don’t have to worry about keeping a roof over their head or putting food on the table. All have loving families.

I don’t understand. People who have it all, in essence, and are so resentful that someone else might get something as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so good and self funded why not make it optional

Because it's for the greater good of all. Those of us who make more help those who make less. It's our social contract, far less stringent than many countries.

No thanks. Hopefully there will be a buyout option before they get rid of it similar to fork.

I look forwarded to the email and replying with

RE: Payout

Yeah, you don't seem to get it. And people like you disgust me. It is a bare minimum we do to help the less fortunate.

My Millions in taxes over the last 35+ years have also done a lot to help the less fortunate. At somepoint you cannot just take take take when the people receiving largely dont' care to better themselves (and are capable of doing so)

If you think you have paid "millions" on OASDI taxes, you are exceedingly stupid. This year, the earnings maximum is $176,100. The OASDI employee tax rate is 6.2%. That means that the most an individual employee will pay in OASDI taxes this year is $10,918. Even if the earnings cap had been the same for the past 35 years (which it obviously wasn't), you will have paid a grand total of $382,137.

Doesn't the employer also pay the same, those considerations of taxes required go into salaries offered by companies. For example when bidding a job as a contractor my rate is based on self employment tax which is 16% so if there was no employer required SS then in theory you would get a higher salary?