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

To: neolib who wrote (69694)	5/3/2018 4:07:37 PM
From: Lane3	1 Recommendation Recommended By TimF Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 353888

So if you mean that what I get paid back is not in fact an actual result of just my own money, invested all those years, you may or may not be correct. Depends where you are on the curve, and what your lifespan ends up being. Doesn't depend on where one is on any curve. SS payments to current recipients comesfrom the payroll tax on current workers. Your money has gone to someone else long before you ever start collecting. At the macro level, the conceptual level, it's pretty simple. Some people contribute way more than they get back and others do the reverse. That's true. But that's a different matter. That's a matter of perception of system fairness, which is complicated not just by differing lifespans but by the redistribution/welfare aspects of the system. How one feels about the fairness aspects seems to tend to distort one's understanding of the tax/payment thing. The distortions about accounting and taxing/distribution machinations seem to be a proxy for how one feels about fairness. One concocts an explanation of how the tax/payment thing works that satisfies one's sense of fairness. Likewise accounting legislation has been implemented to satisfy those perceptions and maintain support for the system. But whether it was those seniors of mine decades ago fighting the notion that they weren't directly self-supporting or later on Al Gore's more complicated lockbox, it's narrative much more than the description of an operation.