Seniors Don't Pay Full Medicare, Social Security Share

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The writer needs to think a little deeper and broader on this subject. see below

chris r of FL 5:39PM February 27, 2013

Ken B. You are exactly right! The government has been busily inflating away the value of the older dollars contributed. They took 1960, 1970 and 1980 $1's and $5's from me and made them worth today's $20 and $50 dollar bills. The argument of recipients taking more than they contribute is a fallacy and displays very one dimensional thinking.
Year CPI avg Value Gov't stated Inflation... ergo < true
1967 100 $1.000 2.8%
1968 104.2 $0.960 4.3%
1969 109.8 $0.911 5.4%
1970 116.3 $0.860 5.9%
1971 121.3 $0.824 4.2%
1972 125.3 $0.798 3.3%
1973 133.1 $0.751 6.3% Arab oil embargo
1974 147.7 $0.677 11.0%
1975 161.2 $0.620 9.1% personal computer; end Vietnam war
1976 170.5 $0.587 5.7%
1977 181.5 $0.551 6.5%
1978 195.4 $0.512 7.7%
1979 217.4 $0.460 11.2% oil crisis -- Iranian revolution
1980 246.8 $0.405 13.5%
1981 272.4 $0.367 10.4%
1982 289.1 $0.346 6.1%
1983 298.4 $0.335 3.2%
1984 311.1 $0.321 4.3%
1985 322.2 $0.310 3.6%
1986 328.4 $0.305 1.9%
1987 340.4 $0.294 3.7%
1988 354.3 $0.282 4.0%
1989 371.3 $0.269 4.8% Berlin Wall falls
1990 391.4 $0.255 5.5%
1991 408 $0.245 4.2% USSR dissolved; Persian Gulf War
1992 420.3 $0.238 3.0%
1993 432.7 $0.231 3.0%
1994 444 $0.225 2.6%
1995 456.5 $0.219 2.9%
1996 469.9 $0.213 2.9%
1997 480.8 $0.208 2.4%
1998 488.3 $0.205 1.6%
1999 499.1 $0.200 2.2%
2000 515.8 $0.194 3.3%
2001 530.1 $0.189 2.8% Islamic attack on U.S. (9-11) [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
2002 538.8 $0.186 1.7% (Oct. 2001) Invasion of Afghanistan
2003 551.1 $0.181 2.3% Invasion of Iraq
2004 565.8 $0.177 2.7% oil price increases
2005 585.1 $0.171 3.3%
2006 603.9 $0.166 3.1%
2007 621.1 $0.161 2.9%
2008 645 $0.155 3.9%
2009 642.7 $0.156 -0.4%
2010* 651.7 $0.153 1.4%

chris r of FL 5:33PM February 27, 2013

Ken B,
What interest? You realize all calculations seem to have been done in todays dollars so there is no nominal to real adjustment to be made here. The payouts listed above seem to have adjusted for inflation when determining what was paid in by doing it in todays dollars, while the payout received is what it is. Where does any additional notion of interest come in?
Edwardo, go do the math on that. Take the first example. If that was his salary, and the contribution listed was 6 or 8% of that, then how many years would he have been paying in?

Mike of PA 1:38PM December 19, 2012

When you speak of what a wage earner has paid into S.S. you leave out the employers contribution with is actual part of their salary. Then you received less than what was paid in on your behalf.

Edwardo of NY 10:33AM August 22, 2012

But the above calculations do not account for the interest or potential for growth of the Medicare and social Security contributions compounded over the contributor's working years. If these are accounted for, the payouts are equal to the amounts contributed. Hence calling the distributions "entitlements" as though they are unearned gifts is fallacious.

Ken B of CT 6:30PM May 18, 2012

I was in a bad, bad car accident in 1995...I had worked as a legal secretary and in the legal firms for over 20 years. I didn't want to get on disability, but had no choice. It was a drunk driver that left me with a brain injury and six herniated disks...I can no longer count, learn new things and my cognition skills suck the big one...I SURE AS HELL DIDN'T WANT DISABILITY...WHO DOES? The drunk driver was going 85 mph in a small pick up truck, passed four vehicles on a double yellow on a curve at 10:30 pm...we were shoved 80 ft sideways and that's how my brain was "torn." I'll be paying for his mistake for the rest of my life and don't live on much from SSD...a whopping $932/mo...(by the way, it was on our honeymoon) So, anyone that says disabled people are less than they are, well....and I used to be an athlete...no more...

phyllis markey of AZ 7:21PM August 07, 2011

If our past presidents had kept their hands out of the Social Security/Medicare jar, we would have alot of hard cash in it, now all we have is IOUs, lets place the blame where it belongs, on the 2 Bushes, Clinton, and Reagan.

Marya of MT 2:41AM August 06, 2011

Social Security was NOT designed as a "Pay as you go" system, but rather as a Ponzi Scheme. Initially there were plenty of people paying into it to support the relatively few that were drawing out of it. But anybody with half a brain could envision the day when the older population would grow to the point where the younger, working people would no longer be able to keep up with their contributions to the scheme. Eventually, there would be more "outgo" than "income". But, politicians, being only interested in the power they gain by being re-elected, refused to acknowledge this fact and continued to proclaim that the Social Security System was "Sound". Since we have long since lost any national capability to think for ourselves in a critical manner (thanks to our education system - but that's another story) nobody forced the issue. Yes there were isolated "voices in the wilderness" crying about the coming collapse of Social Security, but nobody paid any serious attention to them. Now, the problem can no longer be denied.
The Government (i.e. politicians) have been telling us that the funds are in a "lock box" for years. Now they admit, there is no lock box, and instead the funds have all been "invested" in Government bonds (i.e. part of the National Debt) and are backed by "The Full Faith and Credit of the United States Government". Trouble is that US Government is losing its credibility. At least they say that there are sufficient funds to carry Social Security payments out to 2039 before we run out. Whoopee. Was that before or after they reduced the amount of Social Security taxes that are withheld from workers paychecks by 2%? (Did you see a small bump up in your check in January?) I wonder how much shorter the "Trust Fund"'s expected life span is now?
This Government of ours is BROKEN!! And if you are not making alternate plans for your own financial security while you are able to, you will more than likely be in a tough position when you are no longer able to work. Live below your means, save as much as you possibly can in company retirement plans if they are available to you. Set up your own tax deferred retirement plans if you must. But DO IT!! Don't say that you need every penny that you earn for your self. It's simply NOT TRUE!! (except for the truly indigent, which is still, fortunately a small portion of our population.)
Look at your spending habits. Do you smoke? STOP. Pocket $3-$5 a day into a retirement savings plan. Do you have a large cell phone bill contract? CANCEL IT!! Use pay as you go plans. Cut up your credit cards (except possibly one with a modest limit for true emergencies). And pay it off as fast as possible.
Time is running out for you if you are not already prepared, or at least on your way to becoming prepared. It's not too late to start, now is it too soon!! DO IT NOW!!

Rick of NV 8:24PM August 05, 2011

I'm one of those workers who made 30,000 to 45,000 a year and became disabled before I made it into my 60's. I only received under 1300 a month. I wish I could received medicare now instead of waiting for another year, it would help with medical cost and medicines that are prescribe to me. I don't received medicaid and some bills get behind and my bankruptcy keeps going up. Also the little food stamps they send me 16.00 is not enough for one month. I'm still trying to figure out how they came up with those figures they come up with. What is it they espect for some of us to rolled over and die How can you go by the last ten years of when a person work to figure what you should received and not determine it by how many years you have work say 20 to 30 years. every check stub had a deduction for medicare and I;ve kept them for 15 years filed in shoe boxes. I've paid my taxes and some. Where is my money and why I can't have what I should have and not what they the ones who figure this out think this is what we suppose to have. They need to check themselves because in my book they have wreck themselves with the hard working american people.

Patricia of LA 6:39PM August 05, 2011

Then get your effin' hands off my paycheck and let me manage my own affairs. I never asked for these deductions. The effin' government helped themselves to the soc. sec. and medicare money to line their pockets and special interests. Very simple, government stay out of OUR hard earned paychecks. While you're at it, let us bring home what we earn, and get rid of the federal and state tax deductions. Those deductions were supposed to be temporary because our country was at war at the time. Sound familiar?

Cjp of NM 4:44PM August 05, 2011