I Love Social Security

[JDPriestly]

106. I checked the numbers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022672737

The average Social Security recipient receives less per year than a person working 40 hours per week on minimum wage -- and the person who is working has an opportunity from time to time to get overtime pay.

Look at the numbers.

On Social Security, seniors are barely making it. Those who earn more than $40,000 or $80,000 pay extra taxes on their Social Security.

I agree with you on one thing. The income disparity in the country is a scandal. Too many people are barely making it.

And yet, we are bombarded constantly with ads and propaganda from companies and individuals who want to take our money for utterly wasteful things.

The fact is that our nation is dizzy from the greed of those who have a lot and want more, more, more.

Seniors who have saved only accumulated any savings because they lived very frugally. If you fall for the sales pitches from the advertising industry or the promises of the "investment" brokers, you are lost.

I remember sitting in a meeting during the Kerry campaign. One of the younger, more conservative Democrats stated with firm conviction in her voice that, "We are living in the richest country on earth." Kids are taught that in school. It is a lie. We are quite possibly the country with the biggest personal debt in the world. The size of personal debt owed by ordinary individuals in this country worries me far more than the national debt.

Americans are not taught or encouraged to save or to question the value of what they buy. And the business community does everything within its power to hoodwink consumers and take their money from them.

Does it amaze you that we have so much poverty?

Many economists presume that people make rational choices about spending or saving money.

The truth is that people do not make rational choices about spending or saving money.

And, therefore, the entire premise upon which our economic predictions are based and on which businessmen calculate risks, is false.

As long as we delude ourselves into thinking we are rich, we will continue to allow the truly rich, the Pete Petersons and the Bushes and the Cheneys (Halliburton) and the Romneys and the Kochs, etc. to run our country and to steal from us the modest wealth that should be ours --- like the taxes we put into Social Security and the benefits those taxes entitle us to. Yes. Entitle is not a dirty word.

If you are entitled to something it means you own title to it. You are entitled to own land if you record the title or deed to the land in your county. A title is a sign that you own something.

An entitlement is something that you own.

Here, on the Danish line of succession:

As a distinction, those entitled to inherit the throne are called "Prins til Danmark" (Prince to Denmark, although this distinction is not made in English) while those without succession rights are referred to as "Prins af Danmark" (Prince of Denmark).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_succession_to_the_Danish_throne

Entitled means

Verb

Give (someone) a legal right or a just claim to receive or do something.
Give (something, esp. a text or work of art) a particular title.

https://www.google.com/search?q=entitled%20to%20land&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US fficial&client=firefox-a#client=firefox-a&hs=2NV&rls=org.mozilla:en-US fficial&q=entitled+definition&revid=2135647060&sa=X&ei=zhdrUZNAp6uKAtakgfgH&ved=0CHYQ1QIoAw&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45175338,d.cGE&fp=69e0607ba6ebab96&biw=747&bih=362

We are entitled to our Social Security benefits, meaning we have a legal right to them.

Obama knows that, and that is why he is not admitting that his plan cuts the benefits but couching the Social Security cuts in the terminology of a chained CPI which suggest a cut to the increases in the benefits but not in the benefits themselves.

Don't be fooled. If the COLA is cut, the benefits are cut. That is because the COLA is what helps keep your monthly benefit the same. If you get $5 and inflation eats part of the value, you are actually receiving less if you don't get a COLA adjustment to keep your benefit up to the level of inflation.

The COLA goes up only when inflation goes up. So, under Obama's chained CPI proposal, the rate at which the COLA that keeps your Social Security benefit the same in terms of buying power when there is inflation, will not rise to keep up with inflation.

So, don't be confused, the chained CPI will put seniors either closer and closer to the poverty level or under it.

Please read the post that I linked to above if you want to know how much seniors really get from Social Security. It is less than a lot of people think.

Don't be fooled. Fight for your rights. Don't let them fool you out of your Social Security the way they fooled so many Americans out of their homes.