No. of Recommendations: 8
Talk to al, who says that it is :)
No need to. Originally, it was supposed to relieve hardship in your old age. That hardship is being destitute, eating out of trash cans, sleeping in cardboard condos. Old ladies living out of trash cans.
It's a supplement to retirement for most now. But I talked to people in the states who wanted to know if they could live on social security in the Philippines. People who were talking about $800 a month - that's all they were going to get. So I gave them the FB account of a fellow who lived on $600 a month over there. You can rent a bedsitter in places for $40 to $60 a month. (That's a small room with a bunk bed and an electrical outlet, with a bathroom down the hall). None of us could figure out how to live on $600 a month, but he did, because that was all he had.
Then we started adding things to social security - SSDI, etc. There is nothing wrong or bad about social security. I've met people who've been wiped out through no fault of their own, and saw that I was lucky. So far no one in the family has shown up at my doorstep, but if they did, I'd take care of them. Medical bills are high, so Medicare is welcome because we screwed up on our medical system. And if they have SS, that would help.
Believe you me Dope there are lots of people who are dependent on SS, they would live a very hard and harsh life without it.
I think of SS as a supplement to retirement, because it's very hard to live on just SS. Even if you own a home, you have to pay property taxes.
