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Does Social Security pay too many people? (1 Viewer)

Gachi

Gachi

Footballguy
Off the top of my head, you can get SSI benefits if..

You're at least 62

your spouse dies 

you're mentally handicapped aka the "r" word

you're "disabled"

your parents die and you're under the age of 18/19

if you have a disabled child

I'm probably missing some. Are we too generous with SS payments? 

 
Well, duh.

Social Security should have a means test for anyone whose payments have already exceeded the amount they paid into the system.

 
rascal said:
McGarnicle said:
I'm okay with those benefits. What sucks is all the fraud.
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That and paying social security to people like Chet.
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I think anyone who pays in deserves benefits, but yeah...millionaires pulling SS checks is somewhat annoying.  I hope they take that money and give it to chartity, but they are most likely to give it to an obese grandchild who will eventually have a prescription drug problem. 

 
Doctor Detroit said:
I think anyone who pays in deserves benefits, but yeah...millionaires pulling SS checks is somewhat annoying.  I hope they take that money and give it to chartity, but they are most likely to give it to an obese grandchild who will eventually have a prescription drug problem. 
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Got to support those drug companies some how.

 
No, it pays them too early.  People are healthier and living longer than SS was designed to support.

 
cstu said:
No, it pays them too early.  People are healthier and living longer than SS was designed to support.
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Well that's the crux of the problem.  What was applicable in 1937, 1955, 1971 isn't really applicable today.  SS will be fixed, because it has to be fixed because elderly people begging for money on the streets is so former Soviet Union.  All you have to do is incrementally slide the years back over five or seven years, and the problem is fixed.  I have never understood this issue to be honest, it is grandfathered in.  Guy who is 20 now doesn't give a #### when he can collect SS, add a year.  Add another year, add another year, add another year.  This problem isn't hard to fix, social security can be solvent forever by moving the dates like you move COLA benefits.  The hot potato here is something I can't say I understand, but I'm logical in general. :shrug:

 
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cstu said:
No, it pays them too early.  People are healthier and living longer than SS was designed to support.
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They may be living longer, but they not necessarily any healthier.  And people in many jobs can't work longer no matter how healthy they are.

Not that Gachi didn't make his agenda clear.  "Disabled"?  Really?

 
Doctor Detroit said:
Well that's the crux of the problem.  What was applicable in 1937, 1955, 1971 isn't really applicable today.  SS will be fixed, because it has to be fixed because elderly people begging for money on the streets is so former Soviet Union.  All you have to do is incrementally slide the years back over five or seven years, and the problem is fixed.  I have never understood this issue to be honest, it is grandfathered in.  Guy who is 20 now doesn't give a #### when he can collect SS, add a year.  Add another year, add another year, add another year.  This problem isn't hard to fix, social security can be solvent forever by moving the dates like you move COLA benefits.  The hot potato here is something I can't say I understand, but I'm logical in general. :shrug:
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This was part of the campaign of several of this year's republican candidates.  Chris Christie, most notably.  It got him nowhere, but was absolute common sense.

 
Doctor Detroit said:
Well that's the crux of the problem.  What was applicable in 1937, 1955, 1971 isn't really applicable today.  SS will be fixed, because it has to be fixed because elderly people begging for money on the streets is so former Soviet Union.  All you have to do is incrementally slide the years back over five or seven years, and the problem is fixed.  I have never understood this issue to be honest, it is grandfathered in.  Guy who is 20 now doesn't give a #### when he can collect SS, add a year.  Add another year, add another year, add another year.  This problem isn't hard to fix, social security can be solvent forever by moving the dates like you move COLA benefits.  The hot potato here is something I can't say I understand, but I'm logical in general. :shrug:
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I agree. But how do you handle federal employees that are on FERS? When they change from Civil Service to FERS, SS was sold as the one of three parts of your retirement. 

 
My dad's multimillionaire former boss uses his to pay the staff at the family's ski house in Vermont.

Makes sense....

 
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TLEF316 said:
My dad's multimillionaire former boss uses his to pay the staff at the family's ski house in Vermont.

Makes sense....
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Did your dad's friend pay into the system for all his earning years? So why should he give up his right to his money back just because he did better in life than someone else.

 
KCitons said:
Doctor Detroit said:
Well that's the crux of the problem.  What was applicable in 1937, 1955, 1971 isn't really applicable today.  SS will be fixed, because it has to be fixed because elderly people begging for money on the streets is so former Soviet Union.  All you have to do is incrementally slide the years back over five or seven years, and the problem is fixed.  I have never understood this issue to be honest, it is grandfathered in.  Guy who is 20 now doesn't give a #### when he can collect SS, add a year.  Add another year, add another year, add another year.  This problem isn't hard to fix, social security can be solvent forever by moving the dates like you move COLA benefits.  The hot potato here is something I can't say I understand, but I'm logical in general. :shrug:
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I agree. But how do you handle federal employees that are on FERS? When they change from Civil Service to FERS, SS was sold as the one of three parts of your retirement. 
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Not sure your point.  SS isn't going away, not in my lifetime or my Grandkids lifetime without a viable alternative.  Like I've said before, the worst thing you can possibly see in an advanced society is a bunch of elderly people on the streets begging for money to heat their homes and feed their cats.  That absolutely happened in the former Soviet Union, that ain't happening here. 

 
Casinos seem to flourish because of SS.  I wonder how much of their revenue is straight up social security money from old people.

 
ghostguy123 said:
Casinos seem to flourish because of SS.  I wonder how much of their revenue is straight up social security money from old people.
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I love gambling but these casinos all over the place that have buses routed right to their door with a bunch of seniors, is predatory IMO .

But good on the injuns, just paying whitey back for blankets laced with small pox.  :thumbup:

 
The Big Guy said:
Did your dad's friend pay into the system for all his earning years? So why should he give up his right to his money back just because he did better in life than someone else.
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Of course he did. I understand that's the thought behind social security, but the demographics of our country and the general cycle of the workforce have changed since it was implemented. There's no reason a person with nearly 9 figures in the bank should be receiving a check from the government. 

Obviously that person is an extreme example, but i still think the system should be tweaked to provide greater benefits to the people who really need it. To my dad's boss, that money is a rounding error on his monthly brokerage statement. To a truly needy senior citizen or someone else unable to earn a living, it could make a huge difference in quality of life.

 
TLEF316 said:
Of course he did. I understand that's the thought behind social security, but the demographics of our country and the general cycle of the workforce have changed since it was implemented. There's no reason a person with nearly 9 figures in the bank should be receiving a check from the government. 

Obviously that person is an extreme example, but i still think the system should be tweaked to provide greater benefits to the people who really need it. To my dad's boss, that money is a rounding error on his monthly brokerage statement. To a truly needy senior citizen or someone else unable to earn a living, it could make a huge difference in quality of life.
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He's using his to pay salaries for people who probably need the money.  Doesn't seem so horrible to me.

 
TLEF316 said:
Of course he did. I understand that's the thought behind social security, but the demographics of our country and the general cycle of the workforce have changed since it was implemented. There's no reason a person with nearly 9 figures in the bank should be receiving a check from the government. 

Obviously that person is an extreme example, but i still think the system should be tweaked to provide greater benefits to the people who really need it. To my dad's boss, that money is a rounding error on his monthly brokerage statement. To a truly needy senior citizen or someone else unable to earn a living, it could make a huge difference in quality of life.
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It's a tough call on something like this, because what about someone else who earned just as much money but blew it all.  It would seem like they are being rewarded by SS for being an idiot, while your friend's dad is being penalized for being good with money.

I certainly see both sides of the argument.

 
SacramentoBob said:
He's using his to pay salaries for people who probably need the money.  Doesn't seem so horrible to me.
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Well, he'd be paying those people anyway. The fact that he can pay them with his unneeded social security check instead of his other money was sort of a running joke in their circle.

ghostguy123 said:
It's a tough call on something like this, because what about someone else who earned just as much money but blew it all.  It would seem like they are being rewarded by SS for being an idiot, while your friend's dad is being penalized for being good with money.

I certainly see both sides of the argument.
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Yeah, I get this side of the argument. Lots of people who end up living off social security do so because they made bad financial decisions in their lives. My grandmother is one of those people and my mom is probably on the way there as well (due to abysmal spending habits)

I don't like the idea of propping people up after a lifetime of poor habits, but I still think its better than the alternative (giving money equally to those who do and don't need it and transferring the burden of supporting the needy elderly back on others)

 
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Asking 30 or 40 percent of the population to be responsible is a stretch.  There are haves and have nots, the thing is we have to at least acknowledge the have nots so they aren't breaking into ny crib every night and selling their grandchildren for Hot Pockets.  Social Security is the safety net for those people, for normal people who can't balance a checkbook, and as a buffer for those who are responsible and paid into the system.  I have no issue with rich folks getting back what they paid in, I also don't have an issue with all of us supporting those who can't work because of a mental or physical disability. 

 
Mrs. Rannous said:
They may be living longer, but they not necessarily any healthier.  And people in many jobs can't work longer no matter how healthy they are.

Not that Gachi didn't make his agenda clear.  "Disabled"?  Really?
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If people need it they need it.  I'm talking about the average office worker who can work into their late 60s no problem.  My mom just retired at 66 and went back to her job working part time.

 
People actually complain about other people getting social security that paid in their whole life just because they are well off? Thats actually a thing?

Takes a real piece of crap to do that. 

 
Meltdown? :lol:   I called you out for using a racist and derogatory term and instead of you saying, "my bad!" you double down on it by deflecting and arguing it was just a joke.  

 
TLEF316 said:
Of course he did. I understand that's the thought behind social security, but the demographics of our country and the general cycle of the workforce have changed since it was implemented. There's no reason a person with nearly 9 figures in the bank should be receiving a check from the government. 

Obviously that person is an extreme example, but i still think the system should be tweaked to provide greater benefits to the people who really need it. To my dad's boss, that money is a rounding error on his monthly brokerage statement. To a truly needy senior citizen or someone else unable to earn a living, it could make a huge difference in quality of life.
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Let's just let government decide how much all currently wealthy people should be allowed to keep and then divvy the rest up among everybody else. There's no reason anybody should have 9 figures in the bank.

 
ghostguy123 said:
Doctor Detroit said:
Wow, another SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZNITT meltdown.  Sad. 
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Maybe you shouldn't have used the term "Whitey" you racist pig.
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:goodposting:  

Some people get tongue in cheek humor, others don't.  If you don't the other guy is a drunk racist though, which is cool.  Who doesn't want to be that?

Sidebar, I live in what I would consider the real South.  So I got a new dog last week and told the neighbor I was getting her microchipped, and he said he'd never do that because it was a way for the "government to track me."  White people gonna white. 

 
Gachi said:
Off the top of my head, you can get SSI benefits if..

You're at least 62

your spouse dies 

you're mentally handicapped aka the "r" word

you're "disabled"

your parents die and you're under the age of 18/19

if you have a disabled child

I'm probably missing some. Are we too generous with SS payments? 
Click to expand...
Of course it does but a minor problem.  If you are focused on this, you dont get it.

 
Doctor Detroit said:
Not sure your point.  SS isn't going away, not in my lifetime or my Grandkids lifetime without a viable alternative.  Like I've said before, the worst thing you can possibly see in an advanced society is a bunch of elderly people on the streets begging for money to heat their homes and feed their cats.  That absolutely happened in the former Soviet Union, that ain't happening here. 
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No point. Just saying they shouldn't market Social Security as part of retirement package and then make changes to the point that you will never be able to retire. 

 
Doctor Detroit said:
Not sure your point.  SS isn't going away, not in my lifetime or my Grandkids lifetime without a viable alternative.  Like I've said before, the worst thing you can possibly see in an advanced society is a bunch of elderly people on the streets begging for money to heat their homes and feed their cats.  That absolutely happened in the former Soviet Union, that ain't happening here. 
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I think you take the cap off of it (SS stops collecting on income somewhere above 117K or so, not exactly sure where the line is today).  That would instantly solve any issues.

PS: It's not in danger of becoming insolvent for like 30+ years, there isn't a huge crisis as some would lead you to believe.

 
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