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Presently, at an annual salary of US$20,000, you and your employer are paying a FICA tax of about US$200 monthly. When you retire at 67, you will be getting about US$800 monthly in SS benefits. I think that's quite fair and not horrible.
If you don't mind me saying, ... if you were instead earning US$40,000 annually today, you would have retired with about US$1600 monthly in SS benefits. So, it is you yourself who have "doomed" yourself to "poverty" when you retire, not the US government.
....... But it seems, at 40 yo, you are already all set for a comfortable retirement, ie you have already paid off your house mortgage, have a nice nest-egg in private investments, should have some cash savings, etc.
Of course, getting married and having kids or getting scammed by others through greed or being hospitalized for a serious condition(= becoming disabled) will likely put paid to your plans for a comfortable retirement.
....... To prevent such misfortune, a Christian should keep God's Law, either partially or fully, as per ACTS.15:24-29 = a Gentile Christian only needs to keep non-burdensome laws of Moses, especially morality laws, eg the Ten Commandments(EXODUS.20). He/she is exempted from the law of circumcision, kosher food laws, etc.
It is not guaranteed that everyone earning US$20,000 annually will end up retiring as millionaires through self-conducted private investments, instead of through Social Security. Some workers won't save and invest. Some invest but may end up with nothing upon retirement, eg their Mutual Fund investment company goes bankrupt - Bernie Madoff. The SSTF prevents this from happening. Christians are told to be considerate of their weaker or less smart brethren = smart Christian workers should tolerate SS for the sake of not-so-smart workers.
....... Since 1935, the SS has not defaulted on paying out monthly benefits to retirees, and will likely not.
If I put that $200 a month, into a mutual fund earning just 8%, I'd have almost a million dollars by age 67.
You are telling me, that having $800 a month, instead of almost a million, is "quite fair and not horrible"? Compared to what?
If you don't mind me saying, ... if you were instead earning US$40,000 annually today, you would have retired with about US$1600 monthly in SS benefits. So, it is you yourself who have "doomed" yourself to "poverty" when you retire, not the US government.
Please don't do this to me. Nothing can be more damaging than, finding some guy that has worked his butt off, worked as hard as he knows how, tried absolutely everything everyone has ever suggested, only to fail each and every single time.... and then have you come along and say "If only you were earning more".
Don't sit there and act like somehow I could be earning more if only I decided to. I did decide to, dozens of times by now, and each time it left me in ruins. The reason I earn what I do, is because that's all I can do. If I knew how to earn more, I likely would be.
But let's even play out the hypothetical. If I earned $40,000 a year, I would have paid in $410 a month in taxes, you say I'd get about $1,600 a month.
That's a good deal? Really? If you put in $400 a month into a good mutual fund, earning just 8%, which is not even that high.... by retirement you would have $1.5 Million.
$1.5 Million.... or $1,600 a month.... hmmm..... that's tough....... No, it isn't. $1,600 is terrible.
No, it is not me dooming myself to poverty. The FACT is that if I was allowed to have my own money, I would over $300,000 in investments right now. Instead I got nothing but a guarantee of poverty at retirement, and my investments I've had to scrape by with what is left after government takes a massive chunk of my money.
....... Since 1935, the SS has not defaulted on paying out monthly benefits to retirees, and will likely not.
They said the same thing in Greece, and Venezuela. In 1985, people said the Soviet Union had been around since the 1920s, and was never going to fail. Well they were wrong. Greece wouldn't fail. They were wrong. Venezuela, one of the most oil rich countries in the would, couldn't fail... and people are now literally starving to death.
Do not think America can't fail.
I'm glad you mentioned 1970. That's when our trade deficits, and our financial problems, began. Of course people stopped saving then, the money was leaving the country. Then the oil prices went through the roof and the biggest transfer of wealth in history took place, from us to the middle east. SS had nothing to do with it.
The basis of SS is that many wouldn't live to collect, just like any insurance plan. With extended longevity more is being paid out than was anticipated. Lot's of moving part to SS.
All wages and benefits are paid out of company profits, paid for by their customers, either directly or indirectly. As you rightly pointed out most companies have a wage 'formula' that they must adhere to, so it makes little difference if I pay 1/2 or all of my SS contribution; my total compensation package will be the same.
Also just because many don't live to collect very much in SS doesn't mean everyone gets screwed. I and many others have made out very well. I used to chafe at anything taken from my paycheck as I needed it at the time. But now that I'm older I see the necessity of it.
The Trade deficit is a non-issue. Not a problem. The main reason it happened is simply because 50s and 60s, the world was catching up to the US. The rest of the world was wiped out by war and socialism, and thus we were the defacto manufacturing leader. Well of course that was never going to remain true forever.
Oil prices really didn't go through the roof either. In fact, if you calculate inflation of money over time, and compare today to the 1930s, gasoline is actually cheaper today, than it has been in the past. 25¢ in the 1930s, is roughly equal to $3.40 today. Well, I just filled up for $2.20. So in reality, we're paying a heck of a lot less for gas, than people did in the 30s and 40s, and even the 50s.
I will say that the EPA and regulations on oil exploration in the US, did make it more difficult to utilize the oil we have in our own country.
Again, my primary point to you isn't that you don't need social security. If you intentionally live and act so brazenly irresponsible, that you are now utterly dependent on government, then perhaps you are the person that needs that system.
But why do you have to doom everyone else, to poverty, because your choices?
Let me, and those like me, have our own money. I'd rather be a millionaire, than in poverty. You would rather have poverty with social security. Fine! That's fine! You can blow your money however you want! I'm all for choice! You want to give government your money, and remain poor? That's all you buddy!
But this is a country that supposed to be about freedom. Freedom to have control over our own lives. Freedom to keep the money we rightfully earn. I want to have my money, that I earned, going to the investments I want. I would rather be a millionaire, than living on.... $800 a month.
Why should you, doom the rest of us? Why should you, be able to dictate how the rest of us live?
Let me opt-out. You can keep your scraps off the politicians table, if that's what you want. I'd rather go have millions.
