They still had to meet the same employment and tax requirements right? So why the change in age?
There's even been talk that perhaps Social Security won't be there for people in the next 20-30 years because IT'S GOING BANKRUPT.
Excuse me? Let me see if I have this right. I pay into something my whole life, with my own hard earned money, that money was not originally for anybody else to take and spend as they wish, until the Johnson administration came along and changed the rules, moving it from an independent trust fund, into the general fund. Now there is doubt as to whether or not MY MONEY will be there in the next 20-30 years?
Why hasn't anyone done something about this? The Social Security program starts looking more and more like a scam, but the plot thickens...
How many people worked their entire lives putting into Social Security, but never lived long enough to collect a dime of it? The answer is MILLIONS upon MILLIONS. Imagine just one person working from the age of 20 to 65 and dying of a heart attack. That's 45 years of SS taxes which that person will never collect, and if he has a living spouse, she gets the short end of the stick if she even gets it at all, sometimes just a mere fraction of what his Social Security would have been.
Where did all of his money go? How about all the people who worked for 20 or 30 years and died without any chance of ever collecting it? Still you have millions and millions of people. The comparatively small amount of people on SSI or SSA disability can't make up for the missing dividends. Where did all the money go? The government keeps it of course, it is a tax afterall.
Apparently folks, you are taxed, and they spend your money any way they see fit, it doesn't go into a personal savings account (anymore). You might never get this money back, you can't start collecting it until 65, there's no way around paying it, and you can't get gainful employment without it.
Todays word of the day is: Extortion
Aside from all that. The Social Security Act came into being by the stroke of a pen, and it can disappear just as easily. Afterall, it was originally to be VOLUNTARY, but nobody trusted the idea. Why should people be relying on this program to be their lifeline in their old age? People need to be responsible with their money, for their own savings. Pay off your credit cards within 1-2 months, don't take out loans, and don't buy on time. I practice what I preach, let me put it like this. If you can't afford something at $100, you sure can't afford it at $118.
If your outflow exceeds your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall. Don't live beyond your means. In fact, live well within them. Can you go 2 months without a job and still have a roof over your head? Most Americans can't. Why not?
There's a tv commercial that shows a guy living a relatively wealthy life in a good neighborhood, and says "How does he do it?" His answer, "I'm in debt up to my eyeballs! I can't even pay my finance charges. Somebody help me." This is most of the people in America on one level or another. From a Christian perspective this is not being a very good steward of what has been given to you.