The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.” This isn’t a benefit – its 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 socialsecurity ($375/month, including both your and your employer’s 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” 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. Posted by bdholmes[/QUOTE ] Besides our contributions and our employer's contributions as a part of our wage-package....people forget it isn't really a savings account. and not meant to be fairly distributed where some people die before they even collect and some collect more when they live a  long time.   Overall, it has been the most successful program EVER.       Nearly one in three beneficiaries of SOCIAL SECURITY are not retirees; such people receive disability benefits, 1% are aged, 56% disabled, and 31% disabled children often disabled for life, according to the Social Security Administration.  IF the SS fund invested in the stock market this past decade...all these people would be in the creek without a paddle.  Then what if you lose your job... or your business isn't doing well..... or have a catastrophic illness or weather related event.....uhhuh-- well people did and had to use up their 401K.'s.....how well are they  going to be able to recover and save $$  remains to be seen and isn't it great at least they could count on SS  if republicans don't get their fingers on it. ?  .          If they  reduce the outflow of Social Security, that money would not go into the general fund to reduce the deficit and that's a fACT.  .    IF they reduce the outflow of SS----more people will be on welfare/food stamps and how does that help ?  The fund is okay for the next decades and no one can predict what our economy will be like at that time.   The pessimist of our society would certainly destroy lives of people right now by using fake stats to scare people.                  
Posted by JANMB