I was looking over the Social Security website this morning. My employers and I have paid in $132,137 over my 49 years of working. I've been drawing Social Security for nearly 14 years and so far have draw over $302,000. I've known many who paid in but didn't live to draw much or none at all.
Don't know how much was paid in- but I will be history long before I receive it all. That is my thought.
Yet, they use the term "entitlement" as if they were referring to welfare. Yes, I'm entitled to it. It's my money. Even the part paid by my employer could have been paid to me in wages instead. On a side topic, have you noticed that whenever we get a cost of living adjustment to our Social Security, our Medicare costs go up?
My husband's grandfather lived to be 99+; he liked to say that he was retired for as long as he worked.
@Peter Renfro "Beating the bastards" is MY kind of philosophy! However, what is most often lost in the discussion of "getting your money back" is the fact that your (and your employer's) meager payments, if accrued at interest compounded over all those years employed, comes to at LEAST twice, on average, the amount paid in, depending on how long the term is and prevailing interest rates. Therefore, @Sheldon Scott, your benefits received have just started being paid by funds other than your own ($132,000). Easy to see how one might think incentive exists for government to ensure that longevity of it's constituents not be excessively high; war covers a part of that concern. War dead never receive pension, though surviving relatives might get a meager stipend. That coupled with the temptation over all those decades to draw funds OUT of the S/S pot for other use. Such activity carried out by Pension Fund officials is highly illegal (note Jimmy Hoffa, Dave Beck, etc.), whereas when done under the auspices of "government" it seems acceptable to many, especially politicians. Frank