1a: What part of "mathematical exercise to show how bad social security is" do you not comprehend?
at least you finally admit to trying to make SS look like a bad thing. good thing joel and i are apparently the only ones with a political agenda in this thread....
now that is a surprise, since the SS withholding is calculated on base salary, and not base salary after other taxes have been withheld. but you seem to think you're an expert so i guess i will wait for you to prove this one for us too....
SS withholding is actually 6.2%. or are you adding in medicare too? they are two separate programs after all. and i am not complaining about your 4%, i am saying that you are using faulty math -- which you agreed to at the start by saying "mathematical exercise to show how bad social security is".
yeah, if i was actually going to use the IRA to retire there is not a doubt i would have done things to get my shit in order. if i was in retirement, i still would have taken a hit, regardless of whether it was in my account for 5 years or 50 years. and the point still stands that SS is now the only thing most seniors can count on in retirement. we need to go back to guaranteed company pensions if you want to do away with some forms of SS, otherwise you're just saying you want old, poor and disabled people to fuck off and die.
which makes you more of a parasite of the system than you attribute to the people who collect SS now, and who pay into it now. you'd rather see people do without SS than acknowledge it serves a useful purpose. and you'd rather make up numbers to support your case rather than give concrete examples of alternatives you'd rather see to replace social security. you should probably stop responding until you can actually prove your case with real numbers, otherwise your agenda is even more blatant than what you try to put on me and joel
"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman