THIS IS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT....
Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K, per year, over your working life, that's close to $220,500 you will have paid into your Social Security account.
If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the Gov't. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98 (including the compounded interest).
If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65) and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.
The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever did. Washington received all of that money, but then instead of keeping it in the trust account that by law it is suppose to be held in, they have used it for the general fund and other similar purposes. they, in effect, stole the money from Social Security and claim the account is almost depleted. Of course it's almost depleted - they spent it for other purposes, not your and my Social Security program.
Where did the money go for people with no survivors who died before they started collecting Social Security benefits?
Entitlement my butt, I paid cash for my Social Security Insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!
Congressional benefits ---- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages that are for as long as they live, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, nearly unlimited travel to almost anywhere, now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my Social Security retirement as entitlements?
We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless, they say!
In the last months we, the U. S. taxpayers, have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey. And now Pakistan ......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS in foreign aid spent, on what????
Our retired seniors are mostly living on a 'fixed income' and receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries! Yes, some do deserve a helping hand, but so do our U.S. taxpayers - no, not the illegal aliens, however!
They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it's time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it (the Social Security trust fund) in the first place? Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.
Sad isn't it?
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