I agree with everything you said. We do have to make ourselves heard. Example....my light bill this month is more than 1/8 of my income.

"the people in charge decided our cost of living hadn't gone up"

I'm sympathetic for all who rely on Social Security for living expenses. If it's true that last year's gas price decline had a disproportionate impact in determining a flat CPI for this year, then it would also be true that in years of rising fuel prices it had an unrealistic UPWARD effect on the CPI. Since there are more up years than down years, everyone may very well be better off with things as is.

I'm sure you know the law defines which specific statistic (among the dozens the government produces) determines Soc Sec adjustments and all of those stats are determined (mostly) consistently. It's not as if "someone in charge" has any decision to make, I suspect you weren't suggesting that in a literal way.

I truly do not wish to step on any toes as I realize a large portion of the table here do in fact rely on social security but have you ever wondered if perhaps, instead of propping up FDRs failed socialist quazi pyramid scheme, we should instead dismantle it?

I am far from retirement age but I do not now, nor have I ever expected to receive one dime from it.

I KNOW I'm paying into a failed system to support others and I'm okay with that, largely because I have no choice in the matter. My parents also do not rely on social security, nor do my or my husband's grandparents.

We were taught, (by the aforementioned grandparents) that it is OUR responsibility to plan, save, and invest for our golden years.

If only they would cancel social security now; by all means continue to pay out those who already receive benefits but don't allow any new entries. I could get a far greater rate of return on my 6.25% if I were able to invest it for my own retirement.

The problem becomes, of course, those who have already paid into the system and feel obligated to a return of some sort.

If we (still working members of society who contribute) could just accept that what we gave was not an investment but a charity, I think we would all be better off.

It would also help if AARP would stop pushing their problems on future generations.

Social security is not, and was NEVER meant to be, a retirement plan. Social security was supposed to be insurance. Too many have forgotten that and they will press on for changes that are helpful to them with no consideration to what they are doing to their children and grandchildren.

T Gem, I think you have some misinformation about Social Security.

It's not insurance and wasn't intended to be. It's also not a mandatory savings plan because nothing is saved. In the world of economics, it's what's called a transfer payment. Another term for the same thing would be "income redistribution". It's mandatory charity. It will be with us for perpetuity. It's a political sacred cow to both parties and, frankly, I think that it should be because people who need it, really need it.

Workers have no account, per se. This week's payroll deductions are used to fund next week's benefit checks. But they don't need to be, they can collect more than they distribute and Congress can spend the difference on highways or submarines if they want. Or the opposite, collect less than they need but make up the difference for benefit payments from other revenue sources.

It's easier to think of it as a supplemental income tax on the input side that pays for a government pension on the payment side. Nothing more or less.

Just to lighten up the discussion, the world became a better place when hats like those depicted in the photo above fell out of fashion, don't you think?

Snidely- I'm well aware of how social security works and how it will perpetually screw over every generation that came after the boomers simple because there are less and less payers then their are recipients. I still wish it would die a quick death for my children's sake if not for mine; so they can stop supporting the older generations and start preparing for their own future.

I don't know though, it might be fun to wear one of those hats to the annual derby day I attend and see if I win a prize!!

All I can say to texas gem is bully for you and your parents and grandparents for being so fortunate to not have to depend on SS! You truly do not realize just how lucky that you all are! I know many people that have worked hard their entire lives and saved and scrimped and scraped to get by their entire lives and lost everything during the stock market crash back around 2008. They would be out on the streets now if it wasn't for that SS pittance they get each month. Nowadays there isn't really anywhere we can put our saving that we can make any interest. Most of us are scared to death to start investing in the stock market again. Every day I am holding my breath that my stocks don't lose all their value...I've been investing my money in the stock market for 30 years. It's the worst I've ever seen it right now!

Just to lighten up the discussion, the world became a better place when hats like those depicted in the photo above fell out of fashion, don't you think?

I do think. But British royalty still has their "fascinators." :-)

TTYTT I'm so troubled by the state of our economy right now that I don't even trust that our money is safe in a bank anymore. Of course it's all we have but that doesn't change the fact that I do not feel safe or protected! Sorry OT

Let's consider what the US would look like without Social Security. Yes, there are people collecting payments who do not desperately need the money, but let's focus on who DOES.

How would you feel to see people (including a lot of children) who are hungry, without housing, dependent on charity handouts -- you know, the way it USED to be here and the way it still IS in some nations? (Social Security includes aid to dependent children and to the disabled -- not just 'voluntarily retired' people.)

Our Social Security taxes are a *pittance* compared to the contributions in other first world nations.

I'm not whining about 'the state of our economy'. It is in darn good shape -- much better than I expected so soon on the heels of the Great Recession. Now THAT was fearsome! How soon we forget.

(HEY! I kind of WANT to wear a flowerpot on my head...right side up...or upside down.)

Definitely have not forgotten the "Great Recession" at all! I just don't see it getting much better. Perhaps it is where I live but the economy and job market in this part of Ohio is just horrible!

I cannot even imagine what it would be like if SS stopped. It would be beyond horrific!

Back in the wildly
inflationary late '70's/early '80's, Howard J. Ruff was EXTREMELY popular. He
was one of the loudest voices against 'big government'. He believed, per his
1979-1981 writings, that "the United States was headed for a
hyperinflationary economic depression and that there was a danger that both
government and private pension plans were about to collapse."

He advised buying precious metals, dumping the dollar and any stocks/bonds, and stocking a year's worth of groceries to survive the Armaggedon he was sure was coming. I had friends who swore by him.

They gave me a copy of one of his "Ruff Times" mailings. Ruff had gone to Hong Kong and came back bubbling with enthusiasm about their unbridled capitalism and how everyone was growing prosperous there. I mean, he went on for pages about this.

My DH is from HK, emigrating as a teenager. Almost all his extended family emigrated at the same time, either to the US or Canada. Ruff's vision of HK sounded so different from what my in-laws described, I asked him about this 'vision of perfect prosperity' Ruff was trumpeting.

My DH's reply was, "Well, if you stay away from those back streets where the bodies lie, of people who died in the night because they were homeless, old, sick, or injured, with no family or friends - where the city workers pick the corpses up in the morning and cart them away - then, yeah, you'd think HK was great everywhere, for everybody."

There are no social programs in HK similar to Social Security and Medicare.

Powerful image, Jakkom. My late husband was a Ruff reader for awhile. He didn't dump stocks and bonds and buy precious metals, but he bought containers of nitrogen-packed foods and stored them in our dirt-floor basement--where I forgot about them until they became so old they rotted and rusted and made a royal mess that took me weeks to clean up (after investing in a heavy-duty shop vac). So I guess you could say I'm not a Howard J. Ruff fan. :-)

If we all had our crystal balls...that would be great. I wish I had bought up all the gold I could afford and let it go up in price but who would have known that gold would have exploded and oil would be worth less than water?

jakkom, I disagree with you. Ruff never had broad popular support nor even the slightest amount of credibility among the financial community. He was viewed by calmer folks as someone who was deliberately extreme and provocative to attract attention. A huckster, if you will. Aside from the obvious rantings, there was little substance in his advice.

His food storage messages came from the teachings to that effect of the Mormon church, of which he was a member.

arkansasgirl, maybe you're in a part of the mid-West (and/or the so-called Rust Belt) where manufacturing jobs have been massively lost? Sadly, most of those industries that long supported these areas are gone and won't be coming back. As with the demise of the family farm and other examples of jobs that have gone away over time, people need to retrain as best they can and maybe also move to areas offering more job opportunities. An uptick in these areas of economic blight isn't coming.

The economy has been booming in the West, for more than the last 5 years. I suspect the same is true in other parts of the Sun Belt too. Maybe it's a bubble, it often is, but much of it is fueled by services, the tech industry and other new industry jobs.

Yay me, livin' in the rust belt

The protests about 'jobs going overseas' have obscured the fact that machines are now doing a lot of the jobs that people used to do -- here *and* overseas. Labor-saving machinery has been 'taking jobs' since the Industrial Revolution. It was a big concern then, and it is again. I don't know the answer now.

Not to complain...but my DH did not have any life insurance...thought he could always take care of us...lost all he had in stock market through some bad investments...but little did he realize that his "golden boy" had emplezzled every dollar DH had during the 10 years we were married before he died...so was penniless when he died.....so yes, I am one who has to rely on SS and very thankful for it!

OH gosh phoggie, that's so sad! There are a lot of people with these sorts of stories too...sad but true. I know plenty of people with the terrible luck stories and I know others that had the good luck stories. I truly believe it's the luck of the draw...with a little bit of knowledge thrown in for good measure.

We are two that receive social security. My husband worked almost 50 years in a factory. He paid into social security for himself and extra for me. He will NEVER receive back what he paid into it.. Lucky for us we are not dependent on this money. I do get angry at some people that receive it that never paid a dime into it. I had a niece that passed away 5 years ago leaving behind 4 kids. Her ex never worked, lived with his elderly mother, never paided a dime of support and constant.y took her back into court. Once he took her to court for the refrigator. When she died he couldn't get to the Social Security office fast enough. He received almost $3,000 a month, put mom in a nursing home and bough guns and such with the money. Signed up for every free service he could get his hands on. When the two oldest no longer received the money he was complaining he couldn't make it!! Get a job, sell some of the guns and downsize some of the 5 cell phone you pay for. I know some people need this money but when they take advantage of it I get upset!!

That would make me upset too, Susie. It's infuriating. I've never really understood why ex-spouses should get any that's not based on their own earnings.

My DM refused to apply for Social Security when she retired from the real estate business. She only agreed to apply when she became ill. She was a young woman during the Depression, sole support for herself, her mother and her bedridden father. (He'd suffered a stroke at 54.) She remembered when good people had no such safety line. She didn't view it as an 'entitlement'. She didn't begrudge her contributions to it.

"My husband worked almost 50 years in a factory. He paid into social security for himself and extra for me. He will NEVER receive back what he paid into it.."

Susie, you're dealing with some misinformation. Social security tax is based on the earnings of the worker. It's unaffected by whether the person is married or single and there's no option to pay in "extra". As far as "recovering" what was paid, that takes less than 10 years of receiving benefits for most people. As an example, on my own "My Social Security" page, the information indicates that if I start benefits at age 66, I will have "recovered" my contributions after 6 1/2 years. Check your own data on that site to see how it works out for you.

That's one of the problems of the system, the current generation is receiving more in benefits than they'd paid as tax because of low rates of tax in the pre-1990s and the added longevity of the boomers. That all gets resolved after the baby boomer bubble stops receiving benefits.

I am a boomer that
relies on SSA and two tiny pensions to survive. I worked my entire
life from age 17 on, paying into the system all along the way. I fit
into that group of now retired workers that didn't really have an
opportunity to contribute substantially to any retirement savings
account like a 401K (instituted too late along the career path) and
was not employed at a high enough salary level to be able to save
much of anything anyway. My husband and I (when I was married) barely
made enough to make ends meet, let alone save. In fact, we lost our
home to foreclosure (the real estate crunch and a sub-par lender –
bad combo) and divorced soon after.

I am not alone in
this situation. Other than utilities and car insurance, I have no
bills. My car is paid for (nearly 20 yrs. old), no credit cards. And
other than Medicare, no insurance. I simply cannot afford it. My
biggest expense aside from rent is food and as a single person,
that's not all that huge an expense but boy, have I ever noticed a
sharp increase in my grocery bills over the last couple of years for
essentially the same goods!!

Right now I am
looking for a new place to live – my tiny 650sf rental property of
more than 6 years is about to be developed. I am finding that
anything that fits my budget is barely livable – most want an
income level 3 times the rent, whereas I barely can cover twice my
current rent (although I have managed it successfully for the last 6
years). What's the alternative........homelessness??

For those retirees
that can afford to live comfortably and securely without SSA, good
for you!! But there are a lot of us out there that cannot, through no
fault of our own. And Social Security alone – even with my small
additional pensions – is barely a living income. Let me tell you,
it is a tough row to hoe and causes me some sleepless nights and more
stress than I would like to have to deal with. I have put off some
major dental care I need simply because I couldn't afford it.
Thankfully, a family member is coming forward to help out with that
or I'd be walking around with no teeth in my mouth!

I do receive some
additional income from a small home business I conduct, however it is
very seasonal and somewhat unreliable in its size and predictability
and so cannot be used for income calculations for my housing
situation. But it does just manage to keep the wolf from the door :-)

As I said, I am not
alone in these circumstances. I can think of any number of seniors in
the same boat in my area. Please do not begrudge those of us who are
forced to live in the reduced circumstance of just our SSA income,
such as it is. It is not a pleasant or secure way to live out our
“golden” years.

I am not upset that the children received the money but he received over $400.00 for himself. He goes out and drinks with his buddies the minute the checks come in. These kids wear clothes that are way to small, shoes with holes in them. He has been turned in to CPS so many times but nothing changes. The house is so beyond discusting!! When you have that amount of money coming into a house things should be getting done. One of his sons had cancer and he hasn't had him in for his checkup in 2 years.. He is so unfit to be a parent with a lot of fun money for himself. It just isn't't right.

gardengal48, I just wanted to make you aware, if you aren't, that if you were married for 10 years and did not remarry, you will receive SS benefits from the EX husband! Please be sure you are receiving this!

Not only did my granddad's SS not get increased, but his union pension is being reduced. The unions have been decimated by political interest groups, and there aren't enough people paying in to recover what's being paid out.

I know some will disagree, but the push toward IRA's and 401K's has damaged the middle and lower classes more than they will ever know. Anyone who dislikes SS should do more research into why it was instituted in the first place.

The first thing that could be done is to remove the wage cap. Right now, any income over [I think it's about] $125,000 is exempt from the tax. With the cap in place, a lower income worker pays a higher percentage of their wages in taxes to SS. Since lower income individuals tend, or are forced through cost of living expenses, not to save, but rather to spend every last dollar of their SS income, the entire market would benefit from any increase.

Gardengal48, have you checked into affordable/subsidized senior housing? Rent is determined based on income. If you google specifically for your location, you might be able to find something suitable. There are, of course, waiting lists for much of it, but the sooner you get on one, the better.

gardengal48, you may want to look up at the link below.

https://www.usa.gov/finding-home#item-35812

My mom's SS income is about $750/mth (I think). When she wanted to move out on her own 6 years ago, we looked up into the possibility and found a nice apartment nearby for her. It's a housing program for low income independent seniors. Her monthly rent is calculated by a percentage of her total monthly income. She lives comfortably in a 1-bedroom apartment. Financially is comfortable for her as well. She also receives help from other charity organizations and state programs. She gets discounts for her utility bills too. I mean, it's not just for my mom but the whole senior community that she lives with receive these benefits.

My mom was lucky and was able to move into the apartment within 1 month. Some apartments have a longer waiting list. Plus, paper works take a few weeks to get it through. So, you may want to start finding out as soon as you can and begin with the application.

Best wishes to you.

Did look into collecting against the ex's SSA, however my benefits were larger than his (he worked in some SS tax exempt employment) so I was not able to. FWIW, he has remarried and is being "kept" by the new wife - he hasn't worked in more than 8 years (not very employable even before hitting 65!!) and his SSA benefits are minimal.

I have considered senior/subsidized housing and looked into it as well and it isn't really for me. I need an outdoor space for my little business (I am a landscape and container designer and consultant) and an apartment balcony just doesn't cut it. And I am not an apartment complex kind of personality :-) Much prefer a very independent lifestyle - and I am perfectly fit and able to handle one, provided I can locate a suitable place. And the waiting lists for those places in my area are VERY long - 1-3 years - and my housing crunch is immediate.......like like the end of this month!!

But many thanks for the suggestions........I HAVE been working on this predicament for sometime. :-)) Something will shake loose soon!

I know you want to garden, but if push comes to shove, you might have no other option but to go to a low income facility...some times as we age, we have to make adjustments in life if we like them or not....Good luck to you!

gardengal, are there any possibilities of renting a room from someone who owns their own home but is all alone now? If we had not been able to convince my MIL to sell her home, getting her to rent out a room (actually she had an entire downstairs apt sitting empty) was a possibility we would have looked into.

Even as a short-term solution, it might help.

My own mother had nothing but her SSA to live on. She lived with us for a while but eventually moved down to Southern CA to be near my brother. There were more senior housing opportunities down there, too. She found a relatively nice and safe place that was only 20 min from his house, so that worked out well. The public housing where we live is terrible and also has those long waiting times of several years.

She hated taking charity. My brother paid half her rent (she insisted on paying the other half) and she bought her own groceries. He would take her out, for dinner or church events, on a regular basis.

She would only accept small amounts of cash from us. I'd send her $100/mo (all she would take; if I sent more Mom wouldn't cash the check or she'd buy some gift I didn't need and mail it to us!).

I finally figured out she would accept some things, though. I sent her flowers every month; she loved fresh flowers of any kind. I gave her a gas card on our acct when gas prices started to rise. She would always apologize if she went more than twice a month to the station, LOL.