Comments on: Biden tries to remove federal gas tax for the summer.

By: Pebble

Pebble — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 07:30:08 +0000

Im looking forward to retirement as the state pension is more than my salary.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 17:36:14 +0000

Neither is a faceless government bureaucracy following a legislative rulebook put together by your elected representatives

But your boss might have every incentive to cheat you.

Like I said, the longer you wait. the more you’ll get, and I believe the government actuaries calculate that in a fair way. In a related calculation, I can get more financial benefit from NOT putting my wife as a beneficiary in my pension plan, but I feel she needs some income if I die before she does. OTOH, if she dies before I do, I lose out on all the money I would get if I hadn’t written her up as a beneficiary.

Its a fair choice, as long as the options are explained to you before you sign up for the plan.

By: RobVG

RobVG — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 16:07:53 +0000

The longer you wait, the closer to death you are, and that’s what they’re counting on.

By: RobVG

RobVG — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 15:53:54 +0000

I’m no longer opposed.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 13:22:15 +0000

Which I think is fair. And I believe the age benefit of waiting is fairly calculated by the Government. But I figured if I died while I was still working, I would lose out altogether, so I cashed in as early as I could.

Of course, if you really love your job, it makes sense to delay retirement as long as possible. That was my original plan, but when my job turned ugly I decided to bail out. I just needed my VA Medical Benefit to cover my health insurance until I qualified for Medicare at 65. I realize not everyone has that resource, but like I said, I can’t help it if I’m lucky.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 13:14:03 +0000

Come to think of it, I can’t think of anything more deserving of being redistributed.

I believe people should be rewarded for their industry, thrift and cleverness, but not for their luck, or their rich parents. Or their rich parent’s luck.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 13:04:12 +0000

I can’t survive on my (and my wife’s) Social Security, OR my Florida Retirement System benefit. But both of them together add up to a decent pension for retirement.

I’m probably the first (and last) generation who had that opportunity. I can’t help it if I’m lucky.

By: podrock

podrock — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 05:24:52 +0000

I started paying in during the Reagan years. Been getting letters about how much I can get when. I’ll wait until it offsets my Medicaid payment, because, well, that will amuse me.

By: RobVG

RobVG — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 05:00:14 +0000

For anyone born in 1960 or later.

Means testing would be a form of wealth redistribution, but it’s one way to keep it solvent. And a way to roll back the age to 65.

By: ER

ER — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 03:36:49 +0000

When I was paying into Social Security, nobody means-tested me to see how poor I was. However, rich folks had a cut off, above a certain income, there was no SS witholding. Social Security witholding should be a graduated tax, one that increases with income, as should Medicare. I do NOt believe in flat taxes and I don’t believe in sales taxes. The necessities of life, food, energy, housing, cost the rich the same as the poor, but it is a tiny fraction of the rich man’s income. It devastates the poor man’s income. And taxes on investment income should be the same as taxes on wages. Most people don’t have spare income to “invest”, and they don’t get to write off their losses on their tax returns, either. They live from paycheck to paycheck.

Perhaps some sort of formula could be implemented where a certain modest retirement income could be guaranteed, pension + other income + contribution matching, but I do believe SS is like education. I think people should be taxed for schools even if they don’t have kids. Its for the good of the nation. Likewise, old people built the country young people have inherited, they deserve a little dignity and relief before they die. It’s good for the nation. Conservatives seem to think they are doing us a favor, they call it an “entitlement”. But its all a moot point anyway, The GOP WANTS the system to go broke so they’ll have an excuse to blame the Democrats and quit paying taxes to support it. Remember, the last SS reform was under Reagan, he postponed the crisis for 50 years without breaking the economy. Its not that hard and its not that expensive, IF…you don’t wait until the last minute to do it.

There is a lot of things we could do. Raise the retirement age, tax the rich more, (they can afford it), eliminate the income cut-off, means testing, increase the witholding tax, allow matching contributions to SS from our income (like an automatic 401k). After all, as people retire, they automatically open up job opportunities for young people. Its good for the country. But the GOP has resisted every effort to reform the system. What they want to do is to privatize it so they can run a for-profit stock scam, or give it to the banks to “invest” the money in some privately owned fund so they can plunder it with impunity.