Working Folks Fell Off the Cliff ?

[bmathews]

The 2% increase funds social security. I don't mind paying taxes. If so many that choose not to work weren't getting it to sit on their ass. I do a fair amount of work on rentals. I service some section 8 tenants, not a lot, but enough. I see them sitting on their asses, drinking tall boys at 10am, watching Oprah, washing their cars and I'm out working everyday and the difference in my quality of life vs. theirs isn't that large. I live in a place a little nicer than they do, but they have nicer cars and get to sleep late and enjoy the fruits of my labor, that pisses me off.

[Tool-Slinger]

The 2% increase funds social security. I don't mind paying taxes. If so many that choose not to work weren't getting it to sit on their ass. I do a fair amount of work on rentals. I service some section 8 tenants, not a lot, but enough. I see them sitting on their asses, drinking tall boys at 10am, watching Oprah, washing their cars and I'm out working everyday and the difference in my quality of life vs. theirs isn't that large. I live in a place a little nicer than they do, but they have nicer cars and get to sleep late and enjoy the fruits of my labor, that pisses me off.

If you can qualify for 'disability' you can get $6,000 a year from the rest of the tax-payers. No need to work. If you do work, you can only earn about another 6k before you lose your disability income. Legal income, of course cash does not count.

Social Security Disability Income is basically the golden teat of your average socialist obama groupie.

[bmathews]

If you can qualify for 'disability' you can get $6,000 a year from the rest of the tax-payers. No need to work. If you do work, you can only earn about another 6k before you lose your disability income. Legal income, of course cash does not count.

Social Security Disability Income is basically the golden teat of your average socialist obama groupie.

I've got a nephew that is in a wheelchair. Been like this since day of birth. Sister in law got social security to take care of him. Boy is now 22, he gets social security, has no desire to work, sits at home playing video games all day. Sister in law still gets money to take care of him as well. Her husband died 2 years ago, so she gets social security for younger boy since his father died, she considered drawing her husband's social security and not working anymore. She's 43. I believe my mother in law gets social security for watching the nephew during the day. Social security is the golden teat that needs serious reform.

[dannyp19]

SS is a pyramid scheme. Originally it was supposed to be a supplement to retirement, not your only means of retirement. And don't think our government was being altruistic with this scheme, the original retirement age was some 3-4 years above the average human lifespan at that time. Also during that time the average family had 3-4 more kids than now. Far fewer workers are paying into the system when unemployment is high.

But since SS is the Holy Grail of socialism any attempts at reform is unlikely to happen.
If we insist on keeping it we need to raise the retirement age to 82, raise the rate to 9.5% (that's 19% for us self-employed people), and have it means tested to private retirement income. (The more you have in your 401k the less you get in SS). It's a tough pill to swallow but SS is a train wreck and the broken track is not far away.

[netsalt]

SS is a pyramid scheme. Originally it was supposed to be a supplement to retirement, not your only means of retirement. And don't think our government was being altruistic with this scheme, the original retirement age was some 3-4 years above the average human lifespan at that time. Also during that time the average family had 3-4 more kids than now. Far fewer workers are paying into the system when unemployment is high.

But since SS is the Holy Grail of socialism any attempts at reform is unlikely to happen.
If we insist on keeping it we need to raise the retirement age to 82, raise the rate to 9.5% (that's 19% for us self-employed people), and have it means tested to private retirement income. (The more you have in your 401k the less you get in SS). It's a tough pill to swallow but SS is a train wreck and the broken track is not far away.

While I agree SS needs to be reformed to remain solvent this seems a bit extreme. Where did you come up with the retirement age and payroll tax increase? I would like to run the numbers for myself.

[Tool-Slinger]

I've got a nephew that is in a wheelchair. Been like this since day of birth. Sister in law got social security to take care of him. Boy is now 22, he gets social security, has no desire to work, sits at home playing video games all day. Sister in law still gets money to take care of him as well. Her husband died 2 years ago, so she gets social security for younger boy since his father died, she considered drawing her husband's social security and not working anymore. She's 43. I believe my mother in law gets social security for watching the nephew during the day. Social security is the golden teat that needs serious reform.

Thank you for posting that information.

I got my information from a guy who claims disability, but he is strong enough to lift a truck. Handicap tag for his rear-view mirror, he has no disability at all. Now he was disabled in the past, he had a serious accident that basically put him out of work for I guess a year or more. He had been a hard worker all his life, he is a good man and not some human louse. But somehow he learned to milk the system, and that is what he is doing.

[scrogdog]

And that is the big elephant in the room that the conservatives that call for tax cuts ignore. You just do not have time to get your financial situation in order without raising money to pay down the debt before a good chunk of the population wants to retire. And with them retiring spending will go down reducing the economy and the government's cut of it.

Resisting raising taxes and cutting taxes are two different things. Further, Bush's tax cut legacy has been supported by the Obama administration repeatedly.

If the plan is to raise money to pay down debt, we are doomed. That simplistic view will kill us.

The key to the statement I made earlier is WORKING adults. You put 8% of Americans, including those who have simply given up to work and make them taxpayers, and the debt will pretty much melt away.

Debt is not bad, raising the cap is not bad. Having debt exceed a certain amount of GDP is bad.

It's all about getting the domino effect to occur in the correct direction. The juggling act is to keep things from getting worse since then it is more difficult to turn around. Cutting spending and raising taxes are a part of it, but by themselves will be nearly meaningless without low unemployment.

Case in point; the unemployment rate in the aforementioned Italy currently stands at 11.1%.