Most retirees do not truly understand what social security actually is – legally. What it is not, is our earned retirement income, nor is it any kind of personal investment account. Legally, social security is a tax, with slightly different rules than the income tax or the sales tax, but nonetheless simply a tax. Social security is not a right, but is, in fact, a Federal social benefit program – just another welfare program. Your payments into social security over your working history were not voluntary, but were extorted from you, just as were the income tax and the sales taxes you paid – with the implicit threat of criminal prosecution if you failed to pay. While thinking of social security as some kind of account belonging to the retiree, or that it is some sort of vested right, may be emotionally satisfying, such is not the law. There have been a number of appellate federal court decisions on the topic of the nature of individual citizen’s alleged “rights” to social security payments, the most often cited decision being Fleming vs Nestor, which is a U.S. Supreme Court case that is found at 363 U.S. 603 (1960). A lack of space prohibits a full brief of the case (you can Google it if interested in reading the decision), but, the court ruled that no citizen has a contractual right to social security, and that payments under that federal system are not property rights. Once your social security involuntary contributions enter the coffers of the U.S. Government, what you get back is based solely upon the largess of the Congress of the United States. So, if what you have always thought of, and believed was, your “right” to receive social security is beginning to sound like just one more “welfare” program then you are beginning to grasp the fundamental concept of what the social security system actually is. Even though social security is, in reality and legally, just one of many federal welfare programs, it is often referred to as the “third rail” of political suicide, and, because of this, it remains largely untouched by Congress because of the overwhelming influence of those depending upon it, almost all of whom VOTE!
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Originally Posted by chrissy2231
The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment?" I'll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you. Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.
The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a "Federal Benefit Payment." This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security, but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.
If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employers' contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved!
This is your personal investment. Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.
That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it’s a fact).
And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.
Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger "Ponzi scheme" than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer.
But is it our fault they misused our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a "benefit", as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.
Just because they borrowed the money doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!
Let's take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government.
Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.
Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.
99% of people won't SHARE this. Will you?
This Blew My Mind
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