Today I got my 401K statement along with the usual flier with various articles regarding retirement planning and investing and such. So I start reading the articles, starting with one about how presidential politics might affect my retirement where Medicare and Social Security are involved. I work hard, put in long hours for adequate pay and still find myself having to choose between paying bills and buying groceries. This epidemic is wide spread and is only getting worse. The Federal government takes approximately 20.773 percent of my paycheck, 13.3 for Federal withholding, 1.4 for Medicare and 6 for Social Security. The total withheld from me each month is roughly 78 percent my monthly house payment, but I digress. Because I tend to receive a refund for a portion of that Federal withholding my real problem is with the 7.4 percent that is being taken out of my pay to help provide for a program that appears to be destine to collapse. According to the articles that I’ve read, by the time I actually reach the age that I would receive some of these federal benefits there will be nothing left in the money pot. It may not sound like much to anyone else, but that 7.4 percent extra per month would mean I could both pay bills AND buy groceries. It’s like the ultimate charity for people my age to contribute too except we are not given the choice to not donate.
That astounded me, but then I started thinking about the loss of jobs for Americans that our country has experienced the past year and realized that because fewer Americans are working then it would follow that there would be fewer mandatory contributions to the charities known as Medicare and Social Security. When I read something about American companies outsourcing to foreign companies I was deeply troubled, then I read something about illegal immigrants being able to apply for American tax identification numbers so they can work here in America… NO, not just no, but HELL NO. Send the illegal immigrants back to their land of origin and bring the outsourced jobs back to AMERICANS.
Please understand that I know it is very hard for the senior population because of growing health care cost I think I read that health care cost has risen more than 9.6 percent above the rate of inflation and if that is true it is absolutely insane! I also have at least one friend who shared with me that her what both of her parents receive in social security benefits is about $500 a month - for both of them and out of that they need to pay insurance, housing, food - YIKES! What bothers me even more is that there are working class people faced with the same problems except the source of income for them is a underpaying job.
The banks and credit card companies don't help matters any either, offering loans ect. claiming that you can be debt free in 36 months if you borrow from them, so you buy into that promise only to find out the hard way, as I am learning, that you only get yourself deeper in debt and then suddenly the hole you are in is so deep you can't see the top of it anymore. (I'll save this topic for another day though).
The current Social Security program is a product of the Great Depression that followed the October 24, 1929 stock market crash and was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. I could go on about the history of the program, but you can read more about it here if you would like. It has been amended several times, but I wonder if it was ever intended to last forever. I know that there are very valid reasons for having the Social Security program, but taxing the working class even more is not the solution. All I can see a tax increase doing is forcing more people to have to choose between paying bills and buying groceries...
Thus ends my tirade.
