No one has ever paid into social security, one pays out to social security. The only thing one acquires from one's FICA taxes is the legal right to tax the next generation.
FICA taxes go out to recipients, they do not go into anything. The money that's paid out is the same money being collected. Social security is a pay-as-you-go system, also known as a pyrimid scheme. There's nothing in there, in there.
Today's immigrants are going to pull more out of social security when they get older than they ever will be able to pay in. Consider that. Social security is on the fastlane to collapse. The economic liberals want everyone to believe that immigrants will save social security: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02wed3.html These are lies to serve their own interests (desire for cheap labor and destruction of worker's unions). The cost of educating their children alone is greater than the taxes they pay into the system! Bringing in more immigrants now is like relying on a pyramid scheme to save social security. They might pay taxes into the system now, but what happens when they get older? And certainly the children of immigrants, who also tend to live in poverty when they grow up, should also be considered. Because of their typically low incomes, they will not have been able to save enough for retirement and the government will have to pay for their medical costs. It should be obvious that the children of immigrants are going to drain far more out of the system than they will ever be able to pay in. Immigration also lowers wages, and potentially contributes to unemployment, meaning the ammount of tax paid into the system will the less. And as for the argument that illegals do not recieve social security payments; U.S. Social Security Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart signed an agreement June 29, 2004 that will allow Mexicans who have worked in the United States, their dependents and survivors to tap into Social Security. The real threat to Social Security is the legacy of Bush's plan to load illegal immigrants into the Social Security system, an plan which has skyrocketed costs and threatened to bankrupt the system at the same time baby boomers flood into their benefit years!
Ah that meme, direct from the fact free zone of Tea Partiers. SS is solvent for another 25 years, if we do nothing. Not a thing. It is funded with $3T in cash and treasuries, making it the safest most solvent trust on the planet. After that, if we do absolutely nothing, it will pay out 80% of promised benefits for 50 years. That's if we don't lift a finger. If we raise the ceiling from $106K to say $150K, it will solvent for the foreseeable future, beyond the limit of any economic predictions. In short you are propagating pure Tea Party lies.
I wonder how many people would actually buy into Social Security if it was voluntary and sold honestly.
You might do nothing, but they are not going to stop reproducing, which inevitibly will flood the country with elderly poor. You can read the official report: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/oact/trsum/index.html to summarize, the social security program is not in immediate dange of collapse, but there are many serious warning signs. they suggest social security taxes may have to be raised by roughly 50%. they say that if nothing is done, the trust fund will be exhausted in 2036, and thereafter continuing tax income will be sufficient to pay only 77 percent of scheduled benefits in 2036, and only 74 percent in 2085. Further, these projections assume there will not be an unexpected rise in the number of elderly, and assume that that the median income will not change. But these two assumptions are unrealistic, given that second generation minorities have significantly lower incomes, and thus will pay less social security taxes.
It seems to me that both Congressman Ron Paul and his son, Senator Rand Paul want to do away with Social Security because they want to stop paying interest to the Federal Reserve Bank and stop easy money from going to immigrants who never paid a cent into the system. The truth is Social Security should never have been started in the first place. When you spend your working life paying into the system you resent the idea of not getting back what you were forced to pay into. At the same time these elected officials who promise everything and deliver nothing use our money to suit themselves. They should lay out exactly what they intend to do when they get in office and get kicked out if they fail. As a matter of fact, we need to have some sort of plan we could pay into for our retirement years that government could not touch with a ten foot pole.
Once the Govt. collects the payroll taxes for the month they then pay those who are collecting SS. Sounds simple right? well the problem has been that what is usually left over after the pay outs was suppose to go into a trust fund to prepare for what we're facing now. Unfortunately it never made it there. When FDR set it up 1935 when you retired u received One lump sum. When it went to monthly payouts, in 1940, it started to pay for other things.
Lets fact check.... Very little cash, almost all treasuries. The cash has been spent. Today's SSI contributions aren't enough to pay today's claims, so treasuries are sold to make up the difference. Increasing debt, increasing interest on the debt, and not dollar for dollar, treasuries pay interest, so for every dollar paid in claims, a dollar plus interest is added to debt. Interest that is at historically low levels, and will increase. Balancing the budget means income tax will be added to payroll tax to pay claims. Income tax will pay off interest. If we ever pay off the debt, income tax will pay off the principle. 54 million people collect SSI, 1/6 of the population. The average taxpayer earns $50K, 6% of which is $3K per year. $15K per year for SSI and medicare? Check you math... Pure liberal lies.
Many of the same arguments made to justfy racial slavery in the south are now being used to justify generational serfdom. The idea that because you pay one you are entitled to the fruit of another's labor is exactly the common premiss.
So what if the Social Security Trust fund is made up of treasury notes? What do you think they should do with excess funds? Stick greenbacks under the mattress? It seems that you don't like the idea of the government redeeming the Tbills in the trust fund. What other obligations should the government shirk? Our income tax refunds?
You ignore the fact that man is a social animal. If man followed your inclination we'd still be living in caves using stone tools. Social security is not generational serfdom. It is our society's safety net. The operational word is society!
