Why was social security not modeled on a pay-in, pay-out system?

[Isla]

Because some people, like my grandmother who was shot in the head when she was in her early thirties and spent the rest of her life crippled, need and deserve the help and support (however meager) of the community.

She paid in some before the injury. Should she only have gotten what she paid in back out again? Especially when she had a son and grandchildren who eventually paid into the system and would have wanted it to be for her?

 

[HalosPuma]

Originally posted by: Spencer278
Sure they do when either the demand for a product increases you get inflation in that product if that product is an important part of many products you will get inflation. Like labor or oil prices. A reduction in supply has the same effect.

The Consumer Price Index and PPI another price index is used to measure inflation because inflation is a change in prices.

Merriam-Webster defines inflation as:
2 : an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods and services resulting in a continuing rise in the general price level

This is not the true, classical definition, but it still retains the core of it - "an increase in the volume of money and credit". This can "result in a rise in the general price level."

 

[HalosPuma]

Originally posted by: Isla
Because some people, like my grandmother who was shot in the head when she was in her early thirties and spent the rest of her life crippled, need and deserve the help and support (however meager) of the community.

She paid in some before the injury. Should she only have gotten what she paid in back out again? Especially when she had a son and grandchildren who eventually paid into the system and would have wanted it to be for her?

I'm sorry for your grandma. However without SS her children and grandchildren could have paid her directly.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Isla
Because some people, like my grandmother who was shot in the head when she was in her early thirties and spent the rest of her life crippled, need and deserve the help and support (however meager) of the community.

I agree with community helping out, however I disagree with forced charity.




She paid in some before the injury. Should she only have gotten what she paid in back out again? Especially when she had a son and grandchildren who eventually paid into the system and would have wanted it to be for her?

Disability insurance should not be messed with until the problems with the retirement portion of SS is worked out. Disability payments are less than 25% of the SS budget.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: HalosPuma

Originally posted by: Isla
Because some people, like my grandmother who was shot in the head when she was in her early thirties and spent the rest of her life crippled, need and deserve the help and support (however meager) of the community.

She paid in some before the injury. Should she only have gotten what she paid in back out again? Especially when she had a son and grandchildren who eventually paid into the system and would have wanted it to be for her?

I'm sorry for your grandma. However without SS her children and grandchildren could have paid her directly.

In her early thirties, her parents may have been retired, or unable to provide for her and her family, and her children may have been too young - the point to socialized support programs is to catch the people who otherwise slip through the cracks. Such people certainly exist.

Whether SS as implemented right now is the best way to do this or not is certainly open to question.

 

[Isla]

And we did support her, HalosPaluma. Do you really think the little check she got would have taken care of her?

The difference between you and me is that I am glad to be able to contribute to a fund that is meant to help everyone who needs it. I am not inclined to count on the compassion of others, and one day you will be glad not to, either.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Isla
And we did support her, HalosPaluma. Do you really think the little check she got would have taken care of her?

The difference between you and me is that I am glad to be able to contribute to a fund that is meant to help everyone who needs it. I am not inclined to count on the compassion of others, and one day you will be glad not to, either.

I dont think most people have an issue wth helping those that cant help themselves. However there are issue with how such support is done.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: HalosPuma

Originally posted by: Isla
Because some people, like my grandmother who was shot in the head when she was in her early thirties and spent the rest of her life crippled, need and deserve the help and support (however meager) of the community.

She paid in some before the injury. Should she only have gotten what she paid in back out again? Especially when she had a son and grandchildren who eventually paid into the system and would have wanted it to be for her?

I'm sorry for your grandma. However without SS her children and grandchildren could have paid her directly.

and if her children had been shot and killed when she (grandma) was shot in the head?

 

[MajorCaliber]

Originally posted by: Infohawk

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
As usual, politicians weren't willing to stake their careers on something as un-sexy as SS reform through this period, and the result is a BFM that we all get to deal with.

Isn't bush starting to?

Yes! Bush is at least willing to confront a problem, and try to solve it.

 

[Zedtom]

I am sympathetic to tragedies like Isla's grandmother, however I have seen abuses of the system too.

The big drain is related to supplementary security income. This fund is to provide sustenance to a claimant who becomes disabled and can no longer work. The problem is that the fund pays not only the recipient, but his dependents under the age of eighteen.

I know a guy who got ran over riding his bicycle home from the bar after getting drunk. He suffered brain damage. The lady driver who hit him was uninsured. He now collects disability income, and his kids, (who live with his ex-wife), receive checks also. Oh, and this guy still works selling picture frames and hasn't changed any of his bad habits.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: MajorCaliber

Originally posted by: Infohawk

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
As usual, politicians weren't willing to stake their careers on something as un-sexy as SS reform through this period, and the result is a BFM that we all get to deal with.

Isn't bush starting to?

Yes! Bush is at least willing to confront a problem, and try to solve it.

Bush's plan isn't based on fixing SS, or even getting out from under the burden of SS - it's about ideology, and the way it's being planned will cost taxpayers more than any of the other options available. I hardly consider this confronting the problem, but to each his own, right?