Text 4825, 49 rader
Skriven 2010-02-08 06:43:22 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 4774 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Perception
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Replying to a message of Dale Shipp to Bob Ackley:

 DS>  -=> On 02-06-10  05:24,  Bob Ackley <=-
 DS>  -=> spoke to Robert Bashe about Perception <=-

 RB>> Very true. Social Security is an entitlement, because you
 RB>> are entitled to it. But it is not welfare, because you only
 RB>> get what you paid for.

 DS> I should have said "you only get it because you paid for
 DS> it."

 BA>> That second sentence is arguable.  One draws out all of the
 BA>> money one pays in to Socialist Security (plus the
 BA>> theoretical interest paid on those "contributions") in
 BA>> three to five years.  After that point is reached one is
 BA>> getting *more* than what one paid for - and Joe Taxpayer
 BA>> is footing the bill; AFAIK most recipients of Socialist
 BA>> Security draw benefits for  far longer than five years.

 DS> I think that your 3-5 year figure is wrong.  I've done the
 DS> math now. Simplify the problem by excluding inflation
 DS> effects.  Consider a middle income employee who earns $55K
 DS> per year.  The SS tax contributions on that income is $6820
 DS> per year.  Over a span of 35 years, assuming a nominal
 DS> interest rate of 4% and thanks to the magic of compound
 DS> interest, those contributions add up to a total of $382K
 DS> when the person is ready to retire after 35 years of
 DS> employment.

Your numbers are undoubtedly correct.  However, note that I never
made more than $35K in annual earnings in over 40 years of employment,
and that includes overtime.  A lot of folks work for a lot less than that.
ISTR that the median income in this country is somewhere around $40K/year,
although that might be a bit low now due to inflation of the currency.  Also
remember that the  government doesn't pay interest to itself, all that
'interest'
on the IOUs in the SS "Trust Fund" is accounting fiction.

 DS> The SS Pension based on those earnings would be
 DS> just under $23K or 1/16 of the money contributed plus its
 DS> interest.

And I receive a bit more than half that, and note that beginning at age 65,
Medicare clips just shy of $100 off of one's monthly SS benefits, I suppose
the bite is bigger if one happens to be married.

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 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)