Why do people imagine that they are entitled to Social Security?

If people knew that their was nothing for them as a retirement plan… then they would have become a criminal when they had the chance younger on and created one… its an exchange for civility… pass it around.

If I’m not entitled to it, then stop taking it out of my paycheck.

I’m with @Suz!!! I’ve been paying Sam my entire working life—longer than many of you have been alive. I believe I’m entitled to get it all back, with interest.

Social Security has the funds today to pay back every cent you paid back, for almost the next 30 years (estimates vary, but even critics say its got a minimum 10 years). It is literally the most solvent and self sufficient program in the ENTIRE US government. Even if and when it reaches a point that it can no longer pay you back 100% of what you paid in, it will start by paying you back 99 cents for ever dollar. Thats what insolvency for Social Security means, that you will only get 99 cents for every dollar you put in, and so on from there. It will be WELL over 100 years before it will be paying you nothing for what you’ve put in.

(and thats assuming they don’t fix it to avoid insolvency, as they’ve done about a half a dozen times since the programs inception).

I agree with what others have said. Since I have paid into the system (the greatest pyramid scheme of all time), I expect to have my money returned to me.

@Austinlad My guess would be if you looked back at every year you’ve paid in to social security and totaled it up, you’d be get about 5 to 6 years of payments before you’re paid back.

Um, because people pay into it throughout their working career.

The problem with social security is this. When they made the program, most Americans weren’t living that far past 50 years old, and for every one American taking out of it, there were 15 putting into it. So thats a great strategy, and it keeps old people from being forced onto relatives or living on the streets or whatever. The problem is that as time has gone on, the life expectancy in American has gone up significantly. Now most of the population will live late into their 60’s. Topping that off the ratio of elderly to youth has gone down because there was never a second “baby-boomers” generation or something like that. Today the ratio is just 3 people paying in for every one taking out.

Now in part this is one explanation for why the program won’t go insolvent for a long time. The predictions it will do that are based on trends of how much money the program is taking in vs what its paying out. But that doesn’t take into account that that ratio is literally the ratio of elderly to youth in the country, and isn’t just some gradual upward slope. Until the day that the old folks out number the young folks, the program will be solvent.

I’m with the “we paid for it” arguments.

You can’t imagine that you’re entitled to something when it’s actually already yours.

It’s like imagining that you’re entitled to police protection when your tax dollars have paid for the employment and administration of the force. You can’t imagine it – it’s a fact.

As long as it’s coming otu of my paycheck now I’m entitled to it later.

Because any politician who touches it ends up on the losing end of the voting booth.

What I want to know is: Why is it that Reps like to tell others “it’s entitlement”, but then the super rich reps still collect their ss check????!!!

Obviously because they feel they are entitled to their money they paid into the system.

If reps really believe the system doesn’t work, shouldn’t they all stop collecting their SS checks?

I suppose people feel they are entitled because the system has been paying out for so long, and they have paid in, so they expect to get “their” money back. It won’t require much change to keep SS solvent if we make the changes now.

People feel something is an entitlement is if has always worked that way. Hopefully, we will make the changes needed to keep the promise of entitlement.

As much as it pains me to see how much has been taken from my pay over the years, I’m one of many people who don’t think there will be Social Security benefits left for them when eligibility age comes. I’ve also always thought it stinks that people don’t get paid back what they put in, there are caps which are dismal.

“The right to alter, amend, or repeal any provision of this Act [retroactively] is hereby reserved to Congress.”

The word retroactively, was purposely left out, so U$ suckers would pass SS into law.

The IMPLIED contract is that SS will manage some retirement money for U$.
Our consent to be governed must be INFORMED, or it is NOT legal consent.

Inflation is the intended remedy for the U$ debt burdens, including SS solvency problem.

Seniors, plant gardens now, while it is Spring, even if it is only a window box.

Hey, remember when Clinton had it fixed, and Gore got laughed at for wanting to put Social Security money in a lock-box? Then, Bush took money from it to pay for his wars. Now, Obama is lowering our contributions to it, for a year, to help the economy.
Ya, it’s a mess, but it was avoidable.

If you paid into a 401K all your life, then retired and the fund manager told you, “Gee., I was spending that money as it came in.” would that be just fine with you.

Regardless of what was done with the funds, the fact is I paid in all my life and I did so because I was promised a specific return when I reached 65. To me, that is as close to entitled as things get. It disgusts me to hear millionaires now carping about it because they’ve already got theirs, and they’d like to say screw you to all those who aren’t in their income class. Starving senior citizens so millionaires can have a little more in their pockets—that’s not my idea of shared sacrifice.

Since am may not be entitled to it when i get older.. they need to stop taking money out of my checks!!

@saintDrew You may not be entitled to healthcare insurance in the future either, so stop paying for that. The government may not supply police and fire protection in the future, so let’s not pay for that. Can you see that you are creating a self fulfilling prophecy?

I have been paying for social security since I was 16 and am now almost 64. I am definitely entitled. The only people that would use the escape clause are the people that stand to make a killing on the stock market by privatizing the fund. It is just another excuse to transfer wealth from the middle to the upper class. The above question is just another salvo in the quest to annihilate the middle class and bring us further into a third world country.

@Ron_C I totally agree. The media psychologists like Frank Luntz that craft the right-wing talking points are good. They can routinely get middle class people fired up and aching to impoverish themselves on behalf of the millionaires and billionaires that pay Luntz and other opinion engineers like him so handsomely.

@ETpro you know, I really don’t get it. It seems that there are enough resources in the world and enough talent to keep them going, why does one class seem to have this burning desire to annihilate those in lower classes?

@Ron_C For some reason, they truly believe the Randian philosophy that the richest people are richest because they produce more, an that by transferring all wealth to them, production will skyrocket. It didn’t work in Chile under General Pinochet. When Margret Thatcher instituted it in England it brought them near bankruptcy. In Russia under Boris Yeltsin it led to the rise of the Russian Mafia and such rampant corruption that the Russian People welcomed back the former head of the KGB. George Bush tried it here and got the lowest job growth of any president since the Great Depression, and a financial crisis that came dangerously close to Depression number 2. But no matter how often and how miserably it fails, they remain ideologically pure. Confirmation bias of the rankest form.