Text 4789, 49 rader
Skriven 2010-02-07 06:37:20 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 4719 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Entitlements
====================
Replying to a message of Dale Shipp to Bob Ackley:

 BA>> Insofar as Social Security as welfare is concerned, I've
 BA>> read that once one has drawn benefits for 3 to 5 years
 BA>> s/he has exhausted all of the "contributions" made and all
 BA>> of the "interest" those

 DS> That may or may not be true, I've not tried to do the math. 
 DS> Social Security is considered to be like an insurance
 DS> program in some ways.  In addition to the contributions
 DS> made by a recipient, there are contributions made by others
 DS> who end up never drawing any benefits.

My brother died of a CVA at the ripe old age of 25 in 1973.  Socialist
Security paid his estate all of the money he'd paid into the fund, no
interest on the money though (I've no idea why, and I've not heard of
that happening anywhere else).

As I noted in another post, it usedtawas that there were 5 workers for
every person drawing SS benefits.  At least a decade ago it was down to
3 workers and may be down to two workers by today.  This is unsustainable.
Up until this year SS current receipts were used to pay current benefits with a
(small) surplus going in to the Treasury's general fund for the politicians to
waste;
in 2010 SS current receipts will not cover current benefits, so not only will
there
be no surplus, SS will have to dip into that (nonexistent) "Trust Fund" (IOW
tap
the Treasury's general fund).

 DS> I'm not sure if you contributed part of your military salary
 DS> to become entitled to that retirement entitlement.

Zip, zero, nada, nothing.  The military *does*, however, pay into SS.
The only thing I contributed to that retirement was 20 years, six months,
eleven days, thirteen hours and twenty minutes of my life - and that's all
that was required.

The promise was that if one served at least 20 years active duty,
one would retire at half pay (or more depending on time served), retain
PX and commissary privileges, receive free medical and dental care at
military facilities, and be buried for free in a government cemetery.  That
was the deal.  In the 1970s the government did away with free dental care
for retirees, and in the late 1980s/early 1990s it did away with that
free medical care (today not even active duty troops get free medical
care, they are required to purchase Tricare Prime insurance coverage).

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 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)