Monday, August 24, 2009

49% want to opt out of Social Security, Rasmussen reports

I wasn't part of the poll, but you can count me in that group.

From the Rasmussen website:

"Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters say working Americans should be allowed to opt out of Social Security and provide for their own retirement planning.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% disagree and do not believe Americans should be able to opt out of Social Security. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure.

A majority of voters under 50 say workers should be allowed to opt out. A plurality of those over 50 disagree."

With the unfunded liabilities this Ponzi scheme currently has, I have no illusions that the money I've paid into the system over the years will be available for me when I retire. In fact, I'm making other plans because I expect there to be nothing left by the time I'm eligible to collect.

And the trustees who oversee Social Security are predicting no cost-of-living-allowance (COLA) increases for the next two years, due to the formula which ties such increases to inflation. But politicians want to break the rules anyway, spending even more money and covering the cost by increasing taxes:

"The cost of a one-time payment, a little less than $8 billion, could be covered by increasing the amount of income subjected to Social Security taxes, ..."

This means younger workers would be paying for older recipients to get an increase in violation of the current rules.

This is proof that those younger than me are certainly at a disadvantage in the Social Security system. As the system goes broke, government must reduce the amount of payouts or massively increase taxes to cover the obligations. If younger workers could put the same amount of funds into an IRA or other type of retirement account, they own those funds and are assured of actually getting them back, plus interest. Such assurances are not possible with Social Security.

Where do you stand? Would you forgo any withdrawals of Social Security funds in exchange for having your own retirement system? Would you opt-out if you could?

2 comments:

Mad Jack said...

Let me rephrase my choices just a little. I could, at my own whim, forget about collecting any of the money that the federal government took away from me. This is the money the federal government promised to invest for me and hold against that time when I was too old or crippled up to work. This would be the same money that the federal government borrowed from that fund almost as soon as they started taking it away from me. The money I'm never going to see again.

No, actually I'm so stupid that I'd rather keep throwing my money into the campfire and watching it burn up. Of course, neither the dog nor I can afford a couple hot dogs to roast over the fire, but at least we're able to keep warm on those cold August nights.

We're over taxed. The government takes money away from us at every turn and demands more. The government will never have enough money. Never. The government at most levels knows this and doesn't care. Government needs money for programs that will ensure government leaders get re-elected. There are exceptions to this, but these individuals are rare and are either extremely moral and altruistic or mentally defective (Carty, Ben Konop, Tina Skeldon).

I'm convinced that it is very likely that I will never receive any funds from Social Security. It's even more likely that whatever funds I do receive will not be enough to live on once I can no longer be employed, at least not in the U.S. Thailand looks promising, but the language barrier will be difficult. Anyone got the Rosetta Stone for Thai that I could borrow?

gordon gekko said...

Social Security is an awesome program.

Sincerely,

California

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