Social Security and What You Should Know!

Monday, August 22, 2011 by Adrian Krieg -
www.thedailybell.com

There are Ponzi schemes and then there's Social Security. For the last ten weeks every politician from Obama to Sanders has been harping about the out-of-control social costs of Social Security and Medicare and our immediate need to raise taxes and reduce benefits. These political ideologues are liars because the entire Social Security system is nothing but lies.

According to the Social Security Administration, the average recipient collects $500,000 in retirement benefits but pays in only $278,000. Wrong! What they conveniently don't mention is that if the average beneficiary pays in $278,000 and the employer matches that with an equal amount, SS collects $556,000 per recipient.

Well, actually not, because in addition, the Social Security Administration does not pay one cent of interest on monies that they hold for an average of 35 years per recipient. The compounded interest on $556,000, based on a moderate average of 4% annually beginning with zero and climbing to the total amount paid in at time of retirement, results in about $540,000 of interest. Thus the paid-in amount per citizen is actually $1,096,000. That amounts to $540,000 more than SS pays out. In fact, if the proverbial "Lock Box" into which SS payments are supposed to go actually existed, then the entire present outlay of all SS payments could be made out of the interest collected on funds in that "Lock Box" – the interest alone!

Some years ago I had a good friend who worked as an actuary for NY Life. I asked him to figure out how much NY Life would pay me upon retirement at age 65 if I had paid all SS fees to them along with those I paid as an employer (self-employed). He calculated I would receive $3,400 per month, or $40,800 per year, and if I died before age 85 my wife would get over $80,000. In contrast, my Social Security payout is $1,200, or $14,400 per year, and my wife will get $34,000 when I die.

What the politicians refuse to tell you is that they looted the entire trust fund for among other things paying themselves $178,000 a year in salary, and that their own total individual benefit and payroll packages cost the taxpayers an average of $3.5 million per legislator per year. Of course, there are anomalies like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, whose packages are vastly greater.

Fire them all. We need a new slate!

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