4 ms·

No? SS is literally a forced pay-in retirement account.

ElFitz 7y ago
It can also include free or mostly free healthcare, food stamps, as well as various forms of financial help for those in need, such as scholarships or family allocations, as well as those facing extraordinary circumstances (edit: see other comment on disability, etc) I don't where you're from, but it wildly varies from one country to another.
Retric 7y ago
Social Security also covers adult disability and even survivors benefits for the depends of those who die. Making us a vital safety net for those under retirement age. See: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/ https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/ and https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/survivors/ https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/survivors/ PS: This also makes the ROI for retirement seem much worse than it is as retirees only get ~72% of what is being paid into the program,
- Terr_ 7y ago
  Right, because SS isn't a retirement account, it's a "you get disabled and broke" insurance policy. It just so happens that it's very hard and expensive to verify all citizens' age-related disabilities in different job-fields, so the "retirement age" is like a "we might as well trust them when they say they can't work and they're this old" cutoff.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Terr_ 7y ago
No, that's a common misconception, which I suspect is spread partly by right-leaning finance-industry lobbyists, as their companies salivate over the thought of busting open the piggy-bank and collecting a percentage-fee on the flood of money that would be wildly thrown into the stock-market. SS is INSURANCE policy. Quite literally, "insurance" in the name of the law. Oh, sure, there are lots of extra quirks, but fundamentally it's insurance, you can tell because you don't get a "refund" when the insured-against event (alive + disabled + broke) fails to occur. Instead, your payments will go to the other people who got hit by disaster, the same way others' premiums could have gone to your disaster. That's normal in insurance. In contrast, using a retirement account is an investment, its total value is part of your estate when you die and goes to your heirs, but if the stock market tanks you shit out of luck and will still starve on the street. (The thing SS is supposed to prevent.) When you keep this "insurance, not investment" distinction in mind, a whole ton of "weird" things about SS suddenly make a lot more sense.
- tomcam 7y ago
  > No, that's a common misconception, So it’s not forced?
  - Terr_ 7y ago
    > So it’s not forced? ಠ_ಠ
- Domenic_S 7y ago
  That isn't the whole picture, either. After a certain age you can collect Social Security whether or not you need it -- a healthy, able-bodied person of retirement age can collect. In your terminology, it's disability & old-age insurance. Only it's guaranteed that anyone still living will qualify to collect, unlike traditional insurance. I think the most unique thing about SS (that almost nobody understands) is that current payouts are funded by current contributions -- there's no "pot" or "account" you pay into per se, not like a 401k for instance. Instead you earn points by paying in over time, and the points map to an amount you're guaranteed which is in turn paid for by future taxpayers.

It can also include free or mostly free healthcare, food stamps, as well as various forms of financial help for those in need, such as scholarships or family allocations, as well as those facing extraordinary circumstances (edit: see other comment on disability, etc) I don't where you're from, but it wildly varies from one country to another.

Retric 7y ago

Social Security also covers adult disability and even survivors benefits for the depends of those who die. Making us a vital safety net for those under retirement age. See: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/ https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/ and https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/survivors/ https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/survivors/ PS: This also makes the ROI for retirement seem much worse than it is as retirees only get ~72% of what is being paid into the program,

Terr_ 7y ago
Right, because SS isn't a retirement account, it's a "you get disabled and broke" insurance policy. It just so happens that it's very hard and expensive to verify all citizens' age-related disabilities in different job-fields, so the "retirement age" is like a "we might as well trust them when they say they can't work and they're this old" cutoff.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Terr_ 7y ago

No, that's a common misconception, which I suspect is spread partly by right-leaning finance-industry lobbyists, as their companies salivate over the thought of busting open the piggy-bank and collecting a percentage-fee on the flood of money that would be wildly thrown into the stock-market. SS is INSURANCE policy. Quite literally, "insurance" in the name of the law. Oh, sure, there are lots of extra quirks, but fundamentally it's insurance, you can tell because you don't get a "refund" when the insured-against event (alive + disabled + broke) fails to occur. Instead, your payments will go to the other people who got hit by disaster, the same way others' premiums could have gone to your disaster. That's normal in insurance. In contrast, using a retirement account is an investment, its total value is part of your estate when you die and goes to your heirs, but if the stock market tanks you shit out of luck and will still starve on the street. (The thing SS is supposed to prevent.) When you keep this "insurance, not investment" distinction in mind, a whole ton of "weird" things about SS suddenly make a lot more sense.

tomcam 7y ago
> No, that's a common misconception, So it’s not forced?
- Terr_ 7y ago
  > So it’s not forced? ಠ_ಠ
Domenic_S 7y ago
That isn't the whole picture, either. After a certain age you can collect Social Security whether or not you need it -- a healthy, able-bodied person of retirement age can collect. In your terminology, it's disability & old-age insurance. Only it's guaranteed that anyone still living will qualify to collect, unlike traditional insurance. I think the most unique thing about SS (that almost nobody understands) is that current payouts are funded by current contributions -- there's no "pot" or "account" you pay into per se, not like a 401k for instance. Instead you earn points by paying in over time, and the points map to an amount you're guaranteed which is in turn paid for by future taxpayers.