[LoisR]

Since this topic is current, my oldest son asked if Social Security and Medicare are important to us.
We responded YES in they both provide financial security. We explained the obvious and also said without Soc. Security we could not have purchased the house we did in TV.
But that's us. Have others used Soc. Sec. for other needs or wants?
How about Medicare? Did it have a big impact on you when you joined?

[Dana1963]

Originally Posted by LoisR

Since this topic is current, my oldest son asked if Social Security and Medicare are important to us.
We responded YES in they both provide financial security. We explained the obvious and also said without Soc. Security we could not have purchased the house we did in TV.
But that's us. Have others used Soc. Sec. for other needs or wants?
How about Medicare? Did it have a big impact on you when you joined?

Yes it’s a supplement to my pensions and investments.

[davem4616]

Originally Posted by LoisR

Since this topic is current, my oldest son asked if Social Security and Medicare are important to us.
We responded YES in they both provide financial security. We explained the obvious and also said without Soc. Security we could not have purchased the house we did in TV.
But that's us. Have others used Soc. Sec. for other needs or wants?
How about Medicare? Did it have a big impact on you when you joined?

those entitlements allow us to be extremely generous with our church and the charities that we choose to support...as did the stimulus checks that we received earlier this year...and as will any future stimulus money

so from that perspective...yes, it's important to us.

[retiredguy123]

The level of importance for Social Security and Medicare is heavily dependent on a person's overall income. Both systems are designed to transfer wealth from higher income people to lower income people. All working people contribute to the system, but the distribution of benefits is very skewed in favor of those who did not contribute as much. In the case of Medicare, most people need it, and everyone receives the same benefits. But, higher income people pay more while working, and when they retire, they may pay as much as about 4 times the monthly Part B premium as those who pay the basic premium.

[Kenswing]

After paying into these programs for most of my life I just hope there's still something left when we finally retire.

[drcar]

Originally Posted by davem4616

those entitlements allow us to be extremely generous with our church and the charities that we choose to support...as did the stimulus checks that we received earlier this year...and as will any future stimulus money

so from that perspective...yes, it's important to us.

I believe that these programs are important to MANY people, but I do NOT like the term "entitlements", since I paid into them my entire life, I do not consider them entitlements.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by drcar

I believe that these programs are important to MANY people, but I do NOT like the term "entitlements", since I paid into them my entire life, I do not consider them entitlements.

Agreed we paid for them and they owe it to us.

Hoping they will do something soon to put both on a firm footing.

Originally Posted by LoisR

Since this topic is current, my oldest son asked if Social Security and Medicare are important to us.
We responded YES in they both provide financial security. We explained the obvious and also said without Soc. Security we could not have purchased the house we did in TV.
But that's us. Have others used Soc. Sec. for other needs or wants?
How about Medicare? Did it have a big impact on you when you joined?

We are middle class and Social Security and Medicare are important to our living moderately well with Medicare offsetting a very expensive operation a few years ago.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by drcar

I believe that these programs are important to MANY people, but I do NOT like the term "entitlements", since I paid into them my entire life, I do not consider them entitlements.

some get offended by the word entitlement.

by definition, they are entitlements.



noun
noun: entitlement; plural noun: entitlements


ththe fact of having a right to something.

[justjim]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

The level of importance for Social Security and Medicare is heavily dependent on a person's overall income. Both systems are designed to transfer wealth from higher income people to lower income people. All working people contribute to the system, but the distribution of benefits is very skewed in favor of those who did not contribute as much. In the case of Medicare, most people need it, and everyone receives the same benefits. But, higher income people pay more while working, and when they retire, they may pay as much as about 4 times the monthly Part B premium as those who pay the basic premium.

Overall a good explanation. Many Villagers would be “in a world of hurt” without S. S. and Medicare. Especially Medicare.

[davem4616]

Originally Posted by drcar

I believe that these programs are important to MANY people, but I do NOT like the term "entitlements", since I paid into them my entire life, I do not consider them entitlements.

my bad I absolutely did not intend to refer to them as 'entitlements'....I object to that term also...and for the life of me, I don't know why I used that term

We all paid into these systems with the expectation that when we retired we would benefit from having paid into them

sorry...I didn't mean to create controversy

[Aloha1]

Yes they are "entitlements" because we paid for them and therefore we are entitled to get our money back.

And for those who say, you're getting more back than you paid in, yes BUT, had we invested our payments at only 3% per year we would have had much more than SSA pays us today.

Not everyone is financially literate or disciplined enough to do this so there should have been a 2 tiered system for SSA. But since it's a Government run Ponzi Scheme that will never happen.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by davem4616

my bad I absolutely did not intend to refer to them as 'entitlements'....I object to that term also...and for the life of me, I don't know why I used that term

We all paid into these systems with the expectation that when we retired we would benefit from having paid into them

sorry...I didn't mean to create controversy

I know you did not mean anything by it but around here how does one not create controversy?

[JGVillages]

Originally Posted by davem4616

those entitlements allow us to be extremely generous with our church and the charities that we choose to support...as did the stimulus checks that we received earlier this year...and as will any future stimulus money

so from that perspective...yes, it's important to us.

Great perspective but SS is not an ENTITLEMENT. That’s our money even as mismanaged as it has been over decades.

[JGVillages]

Here is what happens when we put people who really are not disciplined in charge of SS.

Abuse of the Social Security Trust Fund Began in the 1980s
by Allen W. Smith / November 28th, 2009

The mishandling of Social Security funds has been going on since the mid-1980s. As soon as the surpluses, resulting from the 1983 payroll tax hike, first began to flow into the Treasury, politicians from both political parties began using the money like a giant slush fund. At that time, it would be at least 30 years before the funds would actually be needed for Social Security, so politicians developed the bad habit of “temporarily borrowing” the money and using it for non-Social Security purposes. That bad habit never was broken, and every dollar of the $2.5 trillion in surplus Social Security revenue, generated by the tax hike, has been spent, leaving no real assets in the trust fund.

This is where the continuing problem started.