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Politics : The Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (69468)	5/2/2018 3:38:49 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 354337

Since everyone receives this earned benefit, it is not welfare. That's not exactly the case. SS has hybrid characteristics. Benefits are means tested at the low end.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (69468)	5/2/2018 3:40:44 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 354337

Social Security benefits are earned. No they aren't. Yes people pay taxes but most recipients pay in less than they take out. Even if that changes in the future (with higher taxes and/or lower benefits to cover the problems with the program) it still wouldn't have been earned. You pay taxes, well you also pay taxes to cover actual welfare as normally defined (just for the poor), corporate welfare (to the extent its actual government payments) etc. Even though the program does tilt towards lower earners, an argument that its not welfare because it isn't just for the poor would be reasonable. But welfare or not it isn't earned. The government forcibly took money from you to give to others, if your receiving it now it forcibly takes money from others to give to you. None of its earned, it just taken and redistributed like any other government transfer program.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (69468)	5/3/2018 3:06:28 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 354337

The first SS beneficiary was Ida Mae Fuller who contributed a total of just under $25 to the program before retiring, and went on to receive more than $22,000 in lifetime benefits. Can SS SOMETIMES be tantamount to Welfare? Surely, you can see that it can. Now, given that millions of people have paid into the system for decades, yet there are only funds sufficient to pay benefits for three years, is it fair to say that on average, a beneficiary receives far more in principal payments far in excess of the principal he or she contributes. And I think you can agree that this fact can be easily proved mathematically. So, is it not true that the average SS recipient is, in fact, a welfare recipient? You might want to call it something else and that is fair. But conceptually, when you draw benefits, most people get out more than they put in plus the associated earnings on their (and their employer's) contributions, right.