On the topic of promises, the myth that entitlements are "earned benefits" is one political talking point that simply refuses to die. Typical retirees, especially older ones, are receiving far more in benefits than what they contributed. For example, according to the Urban Institute, a married one-earner couple with average earnings that reached retirement age in 2000 is expected to receive back more than twice what they paid in. A similar couple that turned 65 in 1980 received 4.3 times what they paid in taxes. And those lucky couples in the same earnings situation that retired in 1960 received Social Security benefits that were over nearly 12 times their contribution levels.

It is true that Social Security payments provide the majority of cash income for 65 percent of seniors. But this statistic uses the wrong metric and obscures the troubling truth about the program. Of course retirees, who are by definition not working, have low cash incomes.

Additionally, Social Security does not just take from the young to give to the old—it steals from the poor to give to the wealthy. In 2011 (the most recent Census data available), the average wealth for a household headed by someone 65 years or older was 26 times the wealth of the average household headed by an adult under the age of 35. In 2009, during the depths of the recession, older households had 50 times the wealth of younger households. Some argue that this disparity in wealth makes sense. After all, older Americans have had the chance to work longer and accumulate more savings. However, back in 1984 this ratio was 10:1.

http://reason.com/archives/2016/06/03/why-obamas-social-security-proposal-woul

Then what would stop people from wasting their saving or hiding it in order to collect SS?

SS is only "welfare" when you receive more $ from it than you put into it. Most libtards are too stupid to function in a free society, they think a free society means everything is free. Hence the wonderment with Bernie Sanders.

Tdog

It was liberals who formed this government.  They function very well in harder times than this. 

I like the fact that I instead had real jobs, not government make work jobs, and that I saved for my own retiring.  I do not need to take money for the next few generations.  I was not part of the group that to depended on government and will continue to depend on government taking money from others. 

But then I am a fiscal conservative.  I understood what Ike said about the waste of Military-Industrial Complex that you depended on.  I do not depend on taking other people’s freedom by disguising discrimination as law and order.  I work for my money.  You should try it once.  You may want to put it on your bucket list. 

So how are the next few generations going to pay for it?  What about their general welfare?  What was wrong with remembering a person will need to support themselves self all their life?  “The boy is the father of the man.”  If a person takes SS then they had a bad parent. 

That "laboring" was a great punch line.  Like you ever have a real job, LOL.

Also, you forgot to add at the end, “…and to hell with everyone else”. 

I would have loved to have been in the military.  But wiser people, like Ike, said it was a waste of time.  They said we needed to pull our troops out of other countries.  We needed to downsize. 

And the wars we had have been a joke.  This, “We have to stop communism because it will not work” was despicable.  What a waste of time, resources, taxpayers’ money and of the lives of so many.  The Military-Industrial Complex was just a make work program.  I mean surly you knew something about what was going on. 

Then you went to "work" for the Prison-Industrial Complex that supported the War on Blacks or as you may call it the War on Drugs.  What a waste of time, resources, taxpayers’ money and of the lives of so many.

The fruits of your labor are in fact the sweat and tears of everyone else and the next few generations’.   Any money the government was to put aside for you to stop not working and to retire were wasted on things like the Military-Industrial Complex and the Prison-Industrial Complex welfare programs that you enjoyed. 

The next few generations are begging you to add work to you bucket list.

The prison industrial complex has also been said to include private businesses that benefit from the exploitation of the prison labor;^[16] prison mechanisms remove "unexploitable" labor, or so-called "underclass", from society and redefine it as highly exploitable cheap labor.^[17] Scholars using the term "prison industrial complex" have argued that the trend of "hiring out prisoners" is a continuation of the slavery tradition…

Others argue that while prison reform is necessary, economic reform through equality for people of color is first necessary before real change can be realized.^[10]

A 2014 report by the American Friends Service Committee, Grassroots Leadership and the Southern Center for Human Rights claims that recent reductions in the number of people incarcerated has pushed the prison industry into areas previously served by non-profit behavioral health and treatment-oriented agencies, referring to it as the "Treatment Industrial Complex," which "has the potential to ensnare more individuals, under increased levels of supervision and surveillance, for increasing lengths of time – in some cases, for the rest of a person’s life."

The private prison industry has been accused of incarcerating people in mainly impoverished communities for minor crimes so as to use them for free labor.

The Implications of the Prison Industrial Complex on Black America

In relation to the Black community the criminal justice system aka the Prison Industrial Complex has not maintained a blind eye, but conveniently kept one eye open as African Americans are penalized more for the same crimes, prosecuted more, given harsher sentences than whites charged with the same crimes, and targeted by police more despite no real evidence that African Americans are more criminal than any other group regardless of the destructive socio-economic environments that low-income communities are forced to live in. Socio-economic conditions may factor in the type of crimes committed not necessarily in the commission of crimes.

African Americans constitute almost 12% of the general population and only 13% of drug users yet 57% of those incarcerated in state prisons from a drug crime. Whites in turn make up nearly 70% of the general population and 68 percent of drug users but only 23% of those locked up in state prisons from drug crimes. In racial profiling studies done in both Texas and New York, highlighting police stops and searches for illegal contraband-whites were more likely to have illegal contraband than African Americans.

We all know the long sick history of mandatory minimum sentences for possessing 5 grams of crack compared to 500 grams of cocaine. What is relatively un-discussed is the fact that 97 percent of all federal crack offenders prosecuted between 1992-4 were racial minorities or the fact that not one-not one white person was prosecuted by federal authorities in Los Angeles from 1988-1994.

From targeting to apprehension to processing to sentencing Blacks suffer more at the hands of the criminal justice system in a way that is so disparate it can be looked at in no other way than as policy. According to a study by Building Blocks for Youth, a Black Youth with no record of incarceration charged with a drug offence is still 48 times more likely than a White youth of the same background to be sent to juvenile prison. If the White youth is sentenced, he is normally given a shorter sentence.

No, I just did not want on welfare. 

What part of we do not need you, we cannot use you, we will probably not be able to get rid of you and we sure cannot afford to waste money on you did you not understand?  But then I sure you thought you knew more about the military than what Ike did. 

Every resident of the country owes a minimum of 2 years just for the privilege of living here. Does not have to be military, but some kind of public service.

Tdog

Granted and getting a real job is the best way to server.  What do you think capitalism is about?

Well it would depend on what your definition of a real job is. Used to be manufacturing something, now it is service or tech jobs.

Tdog

Buffalo is my home town. Two years service with community jobs. Shovel snow at the bus stop, hospital, clean up parks, yadda yadda yadda. All for minimum wage. The military is a good career for some, a way to get a education, or a way out for others.

Tdog

Getting a real job is a better career and a better way to get an education.  To serve the community and the world volunteer you time and give part of the extra money from a real job. 

I recommend the Lions Club.  It is the largest service organization in the world.  You get to see first hand the problems in you community to the problems of the world.  Then you work with the other lions Club member to resolve the problem.  Now that is a better education than a government make work job. 

• Medical care
• Education
• Housing

The Lion's Club would be an excellent voluntary project, but every resident still owes the country two years of some kind of mandatory service. Like the old CCC or WPA of the depression years. Or even the military..........GASP!.

Tdog

That is a real system.  Any real system is better that what we have now. 

Concerning charities do you think that a mandatory contribution to charities is needed?  I think not.

My point was with a real job you have the option and a better means to contribute.  Also, with a real job capitalism is requiring you do something that the economy is demanding.