Social Security is crap!
 

[old foggy rant]
Got my Social Security statement today...

Why in the hell does it exist.

At retirement age (currently 62) in 2028 Social Security will pay me less than 2/3rds what I made when I was 24, 1990.(the first year I "reported" ;) 5 figure income)

If I wait until 67, 2033, it will still be shy $1000 a year. And the cost of living will be how much higher in 2033 vs. 1990?

If I wait until 70 I finally break what I made in 90 by a bit, but not 91 or beyond.

What crap. I would have been better off putting the money in a f'ing cookie jar.

I have already paid in more than they will pay me back in 5 years 22 years from now. And they wan't me to keep paying them for those 22 years for that crap payout... How F'd is that?

And then there is this wonderful statement...

"Your Estimate is based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit amounts may change because by 2041, [if not a whole lot damn sooner, there will be no f'ing money left!]"

But keep paying us cause we are teh big wonderpul gobement, and wi tak kars of ya.

F' Me!

Hope you yougins is saving some money cause there aint going to be any left by the time you retire.

[/ofr]

Remember the payout amount is affected by the expected contributions during your retirement and the expected number of olf fogeys drawing from that. If people don't start dying younger, than yeah, SS will be useless. :p

Social Security will be bust before we can ever draw on it. We are paying for the folks that contributed for their lives which is OK by me. At a certain point the government should just admit that it is worthless to us by the time we retire. If that isn't scary enough, just imagine what it will cost me to send Bayley and Mikayla to college when there time comes. Conservatively I am budgeting.................70,000 per year each? I think it will be much more than that but we shall see. When I went to college back east my tuition was 13K in 1987. That same school today is 41, so I am probably low. How the heck do you save for that?!

I heard today that if you make more than what equals $50K USD in Germany in a year, 85% of your income goes to taxes. Could be complete BS. Anyone know?

As much as I hate paying money to what I consider worthless causes when there are what I consider to be much more important causes that I wish that money went toward, I've never complained about the amount of money the gov't takes from me. I feel super fortunate to live as well as I do, as easily as I do. Yes I worked hard to put myself through a Junior College education (shush :P ), but life is pretty damn easy in America if you ask me. I've had no financial help from anyone since my Junior year in HS and I've always been able to afford the essentials and then some.

God, I almost sound patriotic. Scary.

I think it is the Netherlands and it is closer to 50%. Germany has high taxes but not that high. Of course for those taxes you do get free health care and education.







































and a 996 TT at graduation

Yah, I'd be more apt to believe 50% over $80K. I've heard Sweden has the highest taxes in Europe.

on the tax issue, I know that they take astronimical amounts from your wages in Austrailia, by comparison, but health care and such are taken care of with said money. Kind of nice, seeing that health care seems so scarce among myself and my friends...

As far as SS goes, as I've said before, I don't plan on living that long!

Hey if you're okay with paying into a system that will throw away all your money simply because you think the US is a great place to live and because you're life is easy, then just send me a check each month for whatever you can spare. That way someone will be doing something with the money you don't need besides throwing it down the drain.

Just because the broken system doesn't effect your daily life, doesn't make that system not broken.

German Tax Rates

Personal Income tax rates in Germany are calculated on the basis of a mathematical formula. For 2004 , the following tax schedules are applicable:

Single Taxpayers:

" a zero tax rate on taxable income up to € 7,664
" a marginal tax rate rising form 16% to 45% on taxable income between € 7,664 and € 52.152
" a marginal tax rate of 45% on taxable income over € 52.152

This was taken from the German Embasy in Washington D.C. website

http://www.germany.info/relaunch/bus...tax_rates.html

I'm Libertarian for a reason !
down with SS !!! Our government should keep us safe from other countries and each other. not from ourselves. If you can't plan well or end up really unlucky come late in your life you'll end up working till you die, but you'll make a good example for others to save well. families would probably stay a bit more in touch if you couldn't fall back on SS / unemployment in times of need.

so i concur!

Wait, so you want the money that currently goes to the American government? Are you going to provide me with a setting that allows a comparable quality of life somewhere else?

I thought I was pretty clear when I said that I am not happy about where the gov't spends my money. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with being thankful for the quality of life that living in this country affords me. We're all very fortunate that we are in this particular region of the spinning rock we call earth. We could have been born in one of many fucked up countries, where people would laugh at us for complaining. Poor Americans have it so rough. :lol:

Of course SS is broken, and the gov't should just admit it, as sombody else already mentioned...but I tend to get more angry over things like unjustified war, environmental destruction, domestic violence, drug abuse, national debt ($7 Trillion), FORIGN POLICY, CORRUPT POLITICIANS, and all of the other issues that are plaguing our country. I don't like the current posture of our gov't at all in fact.

As far as medical insurance, I agree it sucks for most people in the states to have to fend for themselves. But personally, I have no reason to complain. I pay $170/mo for medical, dental and vision through two individual plans I found for myself. I just went to medicalinsurance.com or somthing. They're good PPO plans too.

I do need to start paying money into my IRA's again. SS and Medicaire aren't going to cut it.

Well that answers that. :)

Good... Cody, keep distracting Scott. I'm going to go "win" the 6 stroke engine thread... :lol:

Good luck, he's a multiheaded hydra. :P

Here's what you're saying:

"Because I live in a country that affords me a high standard of living, it's okay for them to take 6.2% of my money and throw it away."

I'm saying, if you believe that logic, you should just send the rest of your disposeable income my way. It doesn't matter how great your life is because you're American, the government is still wasting your hard earned money because they're incompetent, and you think that's acceptable.

When I buy somthing at the store, I don't care if the CEO of the company that manufactured the product pays for hookers with the company card. I'm buying the end product. I may not approve of where my money goes (nothing against prostitutes), but isn't the end result way more important?

I wish there was no Government handed out health care and no employer provided health care. I comend Cody for insuring his own health. America would be soo much better off if that was our system. When your employer buys your insurance polocy, the insurance customer serves their customer YOUR EMPLOYER.

when cody buys insurance, his insurance company serves their Customer,
CODY.

Cody is more likely to have great coverage , and benefits he needs, then a random worker at a company under their health care , (i had my coverage Axes in 1/2 recently, cuase it what the customer wanted My Employer)

just think its a bad idea to have such a dissconnect between health care recipient and health care providers.

I'm just lucky I'm young though. If I was in my 40's, I'd be paying $4xx-5xx for the same policies.

I actually just got out of a meeting and my company is getting health insurance, but since I'm not old yet, individual plans are still cheaper for me.

I may look into an HSA (Health Savings Plan) though. It's a hybrid between insurance and a savings account. Way complicated though.