wowOwow - The Women on the Web

I hate it when an article says “under-funded Social Security plan”. It has never been under-funded. It was robbed. If the Social Security that Americans have ‘donated’ over the last 60 years would have been invested and collected interest, we would have more than enough to pay for all the needs of the retired people. Now that I have ranted, I would like to thank all the young people who copulated for my benefit.

I guess I’m a boomer tho I was born during the War—and I’d sure like to see some of the cash heading toward my pocket—things are getting tight with food cost rising like all hell gone loose.

Yes I must admit I am a babyboomer and proud of it. But alas, in 1957 I was going to school full time. One of those nice little pigtailed girls learning phonics and the old way to do math (learning my multiplication tables and I saw Jane run too when I was reading). 1957 was the year my dear husband was born and he says he is not a babyboomer….ha ha ha. As a side note I am also one of the proud cradle robbers…..he was in 3rd grade when I graduated from high school. Isn’t that a hoot! Yes I draw the maximum Social Security disability benefit. For a retiree in 2008, at age 65 and 10 months, they will draw $2185 if they paid maximum in all of these years and have all of the required quarters. That isn’t too shabby. But think of the poor people who are currently drawing $100, $200, $300 per month under Social Security. These people are the ones I am worried about. The 3.2% cost of living doesn’t amount to much of anything for these folks when compared to the peeps who made bunches of money through the years. And whooppee for the $255 death benefit……this wouldn’t even cover the cost of burying my pet frog in a match box. In the early years of Social Security, it was quite common for a woman not to be working, so there were no contributions by this mulitude of women but when their husbands died, they still were able to collect a social security benefit based on their husband’s contributions. This began the drain on the system but it was inevitable. The wages from which contributions from the majority of people were being made were pretty low in those first years and continued for decades. Of course there were exceptions to the rule…..business owners, celebreties, ball teams, auto workers, just to name a few. Then came the onslaught of married women in the workplace. Sure, most women did not make a decent wage when compared to the men, but they were contributing to the Social Security Fund. This amounted to the women being able to draw benefits on their own contributions or their husbands whichever higher. And those women/spouse who were once married to a person for 10 years were/are able to draw a benefit amount based on their previous husband’s (or spouse’s to allow for wives who made high contributions) wages even though long divorced from the ex. The working women helped build up the fund to a respectable level. The actuaries rejoiced at this. Then came modern medicine. The expected mortality age jumped up significantly as people began living longer and surviving major illnesses. This means longer draws of pension and disability benefits from the Social Security fund…….thus a more rapid depletion. A lot of these same women who are living longer are the ones who never worked nor made contributions. And they aren’t babyboomers….they are the mammas of the babyboomers. It’s common for people to live to 85 to 90 years old now. But when Social security was developed it sure wasn’t. Then comes the real blame IMHO….the sticky fingers of the government….the robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario. Too much money was “borrowed” (ha ha) from the fund, thus the actuarial calculations went by the wind. The money wasn’t there to invest. What a shame. Sure it needs changes. It could be that under new changes you would be allowed to make your own investments. But most people aren’t qualified to do this nor qualified to make the choice of how an annuity would be paid out. So a wrong choice could (not saying it will mind you) result in a low result dollar amount or even a loss. Believe me their will be plenty of licensed brokers just waiting to make that big commission from these investments of funds if this is the way Social Security changes go. Some will be good advisors and some will need to be jailed for the bad advice they give. But how will we know the ones to pick….who knows! I have no answers. I have ideas but no one woul pay any attention to me. I’m pretty sure the brilliant minds of today will figure something out. But I will continue to draw my Social Security check like always and then I will die. I will not have drawn out all of the contributions I made over the years. And a lot of other people make contributions over the years and never drew one penny. That’s the premise of Social Security and it’s funding…..the pool of money ….. some will get it and some won’t. Now with the babyboomer’s grandchildren coming on….they will make contributions based on higher wages….so the pool will grow. The older people will drop off in a few years, freeing some money up. And a large percentage of people who draw Social Security disability will die, freeing up a bunch more. And I will probably continue to get the across the board 2 or 3% cost of living raise each year even though cost of living varies by geographic areas. The government sure hides the real figures of cost of living…cause those figures sure don’t match what’s coming in at my house and what’s going out. Sorry to have written a book. I specialized in Social Security and Medicare in the insurance world of education and in college. I learned a lot but I have forgotten a lot….so I hope I didn’t misquote…sorry if I did. Peace and Goodwill to all babyboomers……doll ( and the rest of you youngies out there…..go make whooppee and keep those new babyboomers a coming…us oldies need you).