Benefits are available to everyone based on a benefit formula that takes into account years worked and covered compensation earned. This isn't a welfare program its social insurance.

These people earn their benefit under the program. It's not a handout.

Retirees are paid a benefit calculated under the benefit formula. They get what they put in.

The system has worked fine until Johnson plundered the SS trust to cover the costs of the Viet Nam war. That's been standard practice ever since.

So why should we be required to pay into a public program if we are already paying into a private one?

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I actually agree with Decker on this one. People get paid based on what they pay in, however the benefits they receive can exceed the amount they pay in if they live long enough, and since the fund isn't earning any money in and of itself, red lining seems to be an inevitability.

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I'd worry about government favoritism toward specific companies or commodities for investment. That could open some big cans of worms. We'd need a whole new agency just to watch for corruption.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

Its a VERy Poorly conceieved faux insurance plan! IT IS NOT REAL INSURANCE!

The maximum benefit anyone can currently receive is $13,00o.

If you make $300,000 a year, you receive $13,000 per year in benefits.
Pretty pathetic!

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Because if you aren't paying in now, the people receiving the benefits would be cut off, remember congress does not save this money at all, they simply take from Peter to pay Paul, and if it continues then your children will be paying in so that you can receive benefits from it.

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We need to do away with this inefficient and poorly managed bureocracy!
require employers to withold a percentage of income, just like social security does, then require the company to put that in the company's 401K plan for the employee. Someone earlier said "how would people who invested the social security payments from their paychecks into a mutual fund be right now", the fact is they would be FAR better off than if they simply went with the current SS plan! The economy has grown nicely under Bush until the oil crunch hit, and even with that the account would pay out better than SS!

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It is not standard of living insurance. It is a safety net for those who don't have the ability to safely stow away money in a savings plan for retirement.

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Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. – H.L. Mencken

I refuse to trade humanity for patriotism.

B/c in the national interest, we don't want our streets lined with destitute old people.

We have IRAs but they are limited. We have private qualified retirement plans. But only 37% of private employers offer such opportunities.

So is at or below the poverty level where we want the net to catch people?

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