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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (54860)	5/25/2009 9:28:54 AM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 149317

That's bad.

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (54860)	5/25/2009 11:25:30 AM
From: koan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

>>On the a average, what a person pays into social security is depleted in 3 years (their contributions--not any interest earned on such).<< Money paid into SS has to be considered collecting "virtual interst" as society has decided to use it to fund government instead of setting it aside collecting interst. But that is not the person's fault! YOu cannot just dismiss the compound itnterst variable in this SS equation! So if you take all the money a person puts into SS for 40 years and figure say 5% compound interst, there is a lot more money 'THEY CONTRIBUTED' to society as a whole. That is the real reality and the big picture you are overlooking.

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (54860)	5/25/2009 12:25:38 PM
From: Nicholas Thompson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 149317

that is a wrong choice; it is unfair to those retired saying their contributions stay inert for decades. If I earned interest for 35 or 45 years on funds set aside for retirement - say 12.4% of my annual income during that long period, the funds would last for at least 7 years or a bit longer. It would be even more if well invested, but without risk one can only expect a max of 5%. Of course high inflation would work against interest, but if interest earned was 1.5% more than inflation then funds should last around 6 or 7 years. If the retirement age was 69 to reflect longer lives then the funds on the average could last until the average age of death of 78 or a bit longer under the best scenario . _the average age of death in the USA is the high 70's factoring in male and female. Cutting benefits by 10% or 15% , mainly by income testing would protect the system, as long as all wage income and related business income _some business people manage to avoid taxes on some of what might be called wage income-- had to pay into the system. I know i am mixing individual and system issues , but it is to make a point.