another example of governmental incompetence

[thx1138]

> The Social Security Administration screws up 35 times a DAY!
>
> 'Resurrected,' but still wallowing in red tape
> Government records incorrectly kill off thousands, and there's no easy fix
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23378093/

[q1a2z3]

A perfect example of a government "program" that needs to be done away with. Congress steals part of the money coming into SSI, SSI was never meant to be a retirement system, money coming into the system is immediately paid out to people getting "benefits" so the money never has time to grow. This is a classic pyramid scheme and needs to be shutdown. If people invested their share of SSI (roughly 7 1/2 percent) in a stock fund they would have more money to spend in retirement than they have through SSI. Plus the cash is theirs to pass on to their kids if they want to. The SSI "employees" could all go out and find a real job. The money would never go to DC it would go to a stock fund identified by the employee.

Employers could be absolved of the matching share and could use that money to create more jobs.

[Cuchulain]

If people invested their share of SSI (roughly 7 1/2 percent) in a stock fund they would have more money to spend in retirement than they have through SSI. Plus the cash is theirs to pass on to their kids if they want to.

*sigh*.....Repeat after me -"SOCIAL SECURITY IS NOT AN INVESTMENT PROGRAM". It's a pact between the people of the richest nation on the planet and those among us who are retired or disabled, so that they will not be forced to live in poverty.

Activist and author Thom Hartmann says it better than I can:
1. Social Security is an anti-poverty insurance program, not an investment program. A third of its payments don't even go to retirees but, instead, are distributed to - literally - widows, orphans, and people so crippled or disabled that they can't work. (And people who outlive actuarial averages often get more back than they paid in.)

2. The "iceberg" Social Security will "hit" is based on very slow/low growth assumptions of the American economy (a continuation of the Bush recession for 75 years). But if the economy grows over the next 75 years at exactly the same rate it has for the past 75 - even including the years of the Great Depression - there will be no Social Security shortfall whatsoever.

3. The "high return" assumptions for private accounts assume the American economy will grow so fast that, if they're met, there would be no need for any Social Security reform whatsoever.

4. Even if Social Security does run low on cash in 2042 or 2052 (depending on which arm of Congress you're listening to), private accounts won't add a single penny to that cash-flow problem. In fact, the borrowing necessary to fund the first generation's private accounts will throw the system even further in the red. - http://www.thomhartmann.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118&Itemid=38

[chefmike]

> The Social Security Administration screws up 35 times a DAY!
>
> 'Resurrected,' but still wallowing in red tape
> Government records incorrectly kill off thousands, and there's no easy fix
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23378093/

Wow, so the government is incompetent? Thanks for the breaking news, zippy. Now please STFU and spare us from your tedious spam, you annoying jackass.

[thx1138]

@ mike: No, I will not be silenced. Especially not by a burger flipper. Now that the economy has turned down your 'restaurant" business must be losing customers. Perhaps by summer your hot dog stand will be more widely patronized. Tell me where you are and I'll come by and buy some come July. I love hot dogs, knishes, pretzels.

[chefmike]

A good restaurant will always flourish(not that you'd know anything about that because you probably live on junk food and nicotine)...and an annoying nutjob like yourself will always make a fool of himself.

[El Nino]

Nice assumption there Mike.

[thx1138]

@ Mike: I'll pray for you and tell the missus to light a candle for your enlightenment. She's big on candles and Saint Anthony.