War on poverty

Nickyjo said:

I will collect more in SS and Medicare than I ever paid in... It's welfare for me... just as many people on welfare receive more benefits than the taxes they paid. Other than that, I agree with your post.

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I think that's a rather unfair comparison. With any pension you should collect more than you put in. That's the whole point. So it's not welfare by any definition. My wife is (was) an accountant (CPA) who managed a large union health plan before she retired. She ran the numbers on all five of the pensions we have coming in. SS was the worst on return per dollar invested by far (when you factor in employer contribution; which could have meant higher wages if not paid into SS). The only advantage to SS is the disability feature if you don't make it to retirement. But our other defined benefit private pensions have that feature as well. If SS contributions had been invested there would be no need for the General Fund (taxpayers) to make up the difference now. While it's not a pension, our best performing source of retirement income has turned out to be the Roth IRA, which we maxed out on the contribution. That's because it is all tax free income now.