Southside
Has No Life - Lives on TB
It only gets better in retirement.Think about all those true suckers who paid both halves of FICA. That'd be me. 15% for 30+ years.
They will tax 85% of what you get in SS
AGAIN!
Serfs in America.
It only gets better in retirement.Think about all those true suckers who paid both halves of FICA. That'd be me. 15% for 30+ years.
These days many frail elderly people have outlived their families (families are smaller) also plenty of people in the "Good Old Days" simply starved to death (my Mom and Old As Dirt had a lot of stories along that line especially in the 1930s) and another major point was:"Unless things get so bad that people are willing to ignore fragile elderly and disabled people sitting on blankets with a tin cup"
Wasn't that long ago that families took in their elderly and disabled to care and provide for.
The Churches had extensive programs to help the borderline cases even if they weren't members. It went far beyond the "meals on wheels".
Once upon a time neighbors, friends and other good hearted people cared for and worked with those in their areas that needed the help.
Somewhere along the line we went from caring about people to them being a "burden" to be shoved off and ignored.
A good number of the homeless have major mental or drug use issues. Once upon a time the government had institutions and programs to help these folks, but at a point in time closed them down and ended the programs. Transferring the problems to the street where they don't even enforce the laws for violence, hygiene or property rights.
Like all government programs, Social Security was full of good intentions, but when enacted was shortsighted and poorly executed. It sure didn't help that during Johnson the "trust fund" (lol) became a pool of free money for the politicos. There is trillions in IOU's that the government OWES social security.
Also didn't help when Congress raised the taxes on those earning Social Security (Biden voted for the increases twice!).
Sad thing is that the gooberment will soon get so desperate for mo money, they'll make a way to rob the 401K's, IRA's, Roths and pensions from those who earned them through working to give to those they deem "need it more". After all they believe in equal outcomes, not equal opportunities - the old "it isn't fair" mantra they use all the time.
These days many frail elderly people have outlived their families (families are smaller) also plenty of people in the "Good Old Days" simply starved to death (my Mom and Old As Dirt had a lot of stories along that line especially in the 1930s) and another major point was:
Not nearly as many people lived into advanced old age.
There were always a few people, once you get agriculture you will inevitably get the occasional Roman Senator or Egyptian pharaoh who lived to be 90 or 100. But most people passed away by around age 70 if they survived childhood and the issues of war and childbearing.
Some of this IS caused by societal changes both physical and legal, for example as recently as the Great Depression it was common for families to informally adopt fragile elders as an "auntie or and "uncle." But today if you tried that on any more symbolic basis, if you tried to move them into your spare room social services would like come to a knocking at your door.
The same is true with all the rules and regulations around organizations like churches or community groups providing informal charity, unless they want to build, fund, and comply with all legal mandates to open a nursing home, they can get into trouble very quickly.
I have had close friends nearly (or actually) arrested just distributing food to people (as recently as last week - a warning they were not arrested).
Again, with younger "old" people, if they are not disabled (like me) they can usually get some sort of income and work a doing something; if an employer will hire them. Some things could be modified but in the US are not (usually) for example in Europe Cashiers sit down, you do see people as old as 80 working in supermarkets. But then most people bag their own groceries, with one or two employees there to help people like me or the fragile elderly.
So this is a complex problem, but yeah a lot of people did end up either quietly starving in their home homes or essentially on blankets with tin cups. A lot MORE families were able to take in elders than can do so today, but only if they lived close by to start with.
We tend to view "the old days" through a misty lens that almost always makes "today" look terrible and the past look better. Humans have always done this, but it has gotten especially bad in the West as families shrank in size and little children didn't hear nearly as many "tales" from grandparents, great-grandparents, and grand-uncles/aunties as they used to about what it was REALLY like when they were a child.
But then our entire society seems to be heck bent on erasing all sense of history and the past, but this post is long enough without going into the consequences of that - you can see that all over the board with articles on everything from Woke to education.
My wife and I could easily live on our Social Security.
Everyone I ever talked to expected SS to Be their retirement. It has only been in the last 5 to 10 years that anyone suggested that SS is somehow just supposed to "help" with retirement.
Inflation is not controlled by the FedGov. (I know that you know this fact)Almost no one ever says a mumblin' word about the elephant in the living room - INFLATION. Which is GOVERNMENT POLICY.
This exactly the case.It is a ponzi scheme. What was collected has already been used to pay out to others. Your “pay in” that was collected was spent a long time ago.
Could not have articulated your response any better, Melodi.These days many frail elderly people have outlived their families (families are smaller) also plenty of people in the "Good Old Days" simply starved to death (my Mom and Old As Dirt had a lot of stories along that line especially in the 1930s) and another major point was:
Not nearly as many people lived into advanced old age.
There were always a few people, once you get agriculture you will inevitably get the occasional Roman Senator or Egyptian pharaoh who lived to be 90 or 100. But most people passed away by around age 70 if they survived childhood and the issues of war and childbearing.
Some of this IS caused by societal changes both physical and legal, for example as recently as the Great Depression it was common for families to informally adopt fragile elders as an "auntie or and "uncle." But today if you tried that on any more symbolic basis, if you tried to move them into your spare room social services would like come to a knocking at your door.
The same is true with all the rules and regulations around organizations like churches or community groups providing informal charity, unless they want to build, fund, and comply with all legal mandates to open a nursing home, they can get into trouble very quickly.
I have had close friends nearly (or actually) arrested just distributing food to people (as recently as last week - a warning they were not arrested).
Again, with younger "old" people, if they are not disabled (like me) they can usually get some sort of income and work a doing something; if an employer will hire them. Some things could be modified but in the US are not (usually) for example in Europe Cashiers sit down, you do see people as old as 80 working in supermarkets. But then most people bag their own groceries, with one or two employees there to help people like me or the fragile elderly.
So this is a complex problem, but yeah a lot of people did end up either quietly starving in their home homes or essentially on blankets with tin cups. A lot MORE families were able to take in elders than can do so today, but only if they lived close by to start with.
We tend to view "the old days" through a misty lens that almost always makes "today" look terrible and the past look better. Humans have always done this, but it has gotten especially bad in the West as families shrank in size and little children didn't hear nearly as many "tales" from grandparents, great-grandparents, and grand-uncles/aunties as they used to about what it was REALLY like when they were a child.
But then our entire society seems to be heck bent on erasing all sense of history and the past, but this post is long enough without going into the consequences of that - you can see that all over the board with articles on everything from Woke to education.
The Federal Reserve is a PRIVATELY OWNED corporation - that de facto controls inflation.
Actually it wasn't that way at it's inceptin in 1935. The idea was to collect, invest, and manage the money. Had they done so it would be more than solvent today. Instead they started stealing out of it immediately to finance the Lend/Lease operation. The account has been empty ever since.It is a ponzi scheme. What was collected has already been used to pay out to others. Your “pay in” that was collected was spent a long time ago.
Would haveActually it wasn't that way at it's inceptin in 1935. The idea was to collect, invest, and manage the money. Had they done so it would be more than solvent today. Instead they started stealing out of it immediately to finance the Lend/Lease operation. The account has been empty ever since.
The Civil Service Retirement Act went into effect at the same time. It, too, was based on 15%. Half from the gov and half from the employee. However it was written in such a way that the thieving politicians couldn't steal it blind like they did SS. When it was done away with in 1983 it had TONS of money in the account. (Which the politicians had been salivating over since it's inception. They couldn't steal from it while it was in operation so they did away with it and THEN stole the money that was left.) All that money was there and CSRA annuities were one HELL of lot better than SS ever thought of being.
It isn't the fault of the system. It was/is squarely the fault of the thieving politicians.
My husband’s parents cared for his maternal grandmother for the first 25 years of their marriage.
My husband and I cared for his parents the last 4 years of their lives . They were married 55 years and died 23 hours apart.
We never questioned if we’d care for our parents as it was the way we were raised. Both my husband and I came along late in our parents’ lives.
Thankfully, my employer allowed me to work from home and I realize not everyone has that opportunity.
Can you sign up for VA healthcare?I'm so rich now Oregon dropped me from Medicaid. I have to pay the full Part B premium now. I will lose $100 out of last years monthly payment.
I doubt I will even get any health care at all.
I got screwed on my cataract surgery and the delays are 4 months now with brown turning the pure bloods into hitler's Juden.
I can't opt out of paying the part b either, even as they deny me health care et al as an unvacinated.
I will pay for zero health care I think. Brown's new mandate for health care workers takes effect on the 18th and my eye doctor quits 3 weeks later and is moving out of state. Kaiser fired 2000 non vacinated last week.
No. I am means tested out due to my Dad's estate, not enough to be rich but enough not to be poor.Can you sign up for VA healthcare?
It was never meant to be more than essentially a subsistence living by itself.My wife and I could easily live on our Social Security.
Everyone I ever talked to expected SS to Be their retirement. It has only been in the last 5 to 10 years that anyone suggested that SS is somehow just supposed to "help" with retirement.
It has been much longer than that that my yearly letters stated you should not plan on having SocSec as your only income for retirement. Even if the dot-gov hadn't told me that, I sure wasn't gonna throw myself on their tender mercies.My wife and I could easily live on our Social Security.
Everyone I ever talked to expected SS to Be their retirement. It has only been in the last 5 to 10 years that anyone suggested that SS is somehow just supposed to "help" with retirement.
LOL next year ROFLOL next year. 5.9% is the average back to Sept of last year. If not Jan. Sept alone was over 8%. Just Sept was 8%+5.9%? Wait till next year. We haven't seen anything yet.
and in other news, the medical costs for SS will have a price increase of 7% next year.......Social Security COLA largest in decades as inflation jumps
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER18 minutes ago
This Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, photo shows a Social Security card in Tigard, Ore. Millions of retirees on Social Security will get a 5.9% boost in benefits for 2022. The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of retirees on Social Security will get a 5.9% boost in benefits for 2022. The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic.
The COLA, as it’s commonly called, amounts to $92 a month for the average retired worker, according to estimates released Wednesday by the Social Security Administration. That marks an abrupt break from a long lull in inflation that saw cost-of-living adjustments averaging just 1.65% a year over the last 10 years.
With the increase the estimated average Social Security payment for a retired worker will be $1,657 a month next year. A typical couple’s benefits would rise by $154 to $2,753 per month.
“It goes pretty quickly,” retiree Cliff Rumsey said of the cost-of-living increases he’s seen. After a career in sales for a leading steel manufacturer, Rumsey lives near Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. He cares at home for his wife of nearly 60 years, Judy, who has advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Since the coronavirus pandemic, Rumsey said he has noted price increases for food, wages paid to caregivers who occasionally spell him and personal care products for Judy, not to mention energy costs.
The COLA affects household budgets for about 1 in 5 Americans. That includes Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees, nearly 70 million people in all. For baby boomers who embarked on retirement within the last 15 years, it will be the biggest increase they’ve seen.
“It’s going to be welcome,” said analyst Mary Johnson of the nonpartisan Senior Citizens League advocacy group. “But what we are hearing is that even with the COLA, buying power will still be eroded because price increases are still going up.”
Policymakers say the COLA was designed as a safeguard to protect Social Security benefits against the loss of purchasing power in an ever-changing economy, and not a pay bump for retirees. About half of seniors live in households where Social Security benefits provide at least 50% of their income, and one-quarter rely on their monthly payment for all or nearly all their earnings.
“Regardless of the size of the COLA, you never want to minimize the importance of the COLA,” said retirement policy expert Charles Blahous, a former public trustee helping to oversee Social Security and Medicare finances. “What people are able to purchase is very profoundly affected by the number that comes out. We are talking the necessities of living in many cases.”
This year’s Social Security trustees report amplified warnings about the long-range financial stability of the program, but there’s little talk about fixes in Congress with lawmakers’ attention consumed by President Joe Biden’s massive domestic agenda legislation and partisan machinations over the national debt. Social Security cannot be addressed through the budget reconciliation process Democrats are attempting to use to deliver Biden’s promises.
But Social Security’s turn will come, said Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee and author of legislation to tackle looming shortfalls that would leave the program unable to pay full benefits in less than 15 years. His bill would raise payroll taxes while also changing the COLA formula to give more weight to health care expenses and other costs that weigh more heavily on the elderly. Larson said he intends to press ahead next year.
“This one-time shot of COLA is not the antidote,” he said.
Although Biden’s domestic package includes a major expansion of Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision care, Larson said he hears from constituents that seniors are feeling neglected by the Democrats.
“In town halls and tele-town halls they’re saying, ‘We are really happy with what you did on the child tax credit, but what about us?’” Larson added. “In a midterm election, this is a very important constituency.”
The COLA is only one part of the annual financial equation for seniors. An announcement about Medicare’s Part B premium for outpatient care is expected soon. It’s usually an increase, so at least some of any Social Security raise goes for health care. The Part B premium is now $148.50 a month, and the Medicare trustees report estimated a $10 increase for 2022.
Economist Marilyn Moon, who also served as public trustee for Social Security and Medicare, said she believes the current spurt of inflation is an adjustment to highly unusual economic circumstances and the pattern of restraint on prices will reassert itself with time.
“I would think is going to be an increase this year that you won’t see reproduced in the future,” Moon said.
Policymakers should not delay getting to work on retirement programs.
“We’re at a point in time where people don’t react to policy needs until there is a sense of desperation, and both Social Security and Medicare are programs that benefit from long-range planning rather short-range machinations,” she said.
Posted for fair use
Social Security checks getting big boost as inflation rises
Millions of retirees on Social Security will get a 5.9% boost in benefits for 2022. The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic.apnews.com
I understand. The being "rich" was a joke, but sadly it is becoming true very quickly.....LOL next year ROFLOL next year. 5.9% is the average back to Sept of last year. If not Jan. Sept alone was over 8%. Just Sept was 8%+
Next year! That's a good one. I've already stolen 20guage's we're going to be rich, so don't be surprised if you start seeing that in my posts. LOL
No harm no foul intended, just poking at you.
Next year.
Ya... We'll have lots of dollars (unless they are 'bailed-in'), but they will buy very little. Perhaps cash will rise in purchasing power (even a lot) after the system dies, and before the next unit of exchange is established.I understand. The being "rich" was a joke, but sadly it is becoming true very quickly.....
Who really knows. I am betting on silver to get me throughYa... We'll have lots of dollars (unless they are 'bailed-in'), but they will buy very little. Perhaps cash will rise in value after the system dies, and before the next unit of exchange is established.
Me 3; and other things of similar characteristic.I am betting on silver to get me through
Well yeah!!!!I understand. The being "rich" was a joke, but sadly it is becoming true very quickly.....
I think this totally depended on the social-economic level of the family/recipients, for retired sharecroppers or other folks who had very low incomes (no matter how hard-working) during their working lives, Social Security WAS their retirement income.Hmm...somehow, my recollection has been exactly the opposite.
Back when SS first came into existence, it was "pin money", a little bit to help out the extended family or to supplement savings/investments/part-time work and never intended to be sole support for the elder population, like so many fantasize that it is today.