Comment

This is literally how all insurance works. Everyone pays into a pool to help the individuals that need it, knowing it could be them. Ideally, government insurance doesn’t also make a profit.

Social security isn’t a piggy bank. That’s what retirement savings are for.

source

Sort:hotnew top

Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Social security literally just is collective retirement savings

source
- folekaule@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Honest question: how is it different from de facto insurance when you don’t get to withdraw everything you put into it, or pass it down when you die? I would like to know where my understanding of it is incorrect.
  
  source
  - Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Insurance pays out a flat amount once, social security pays out constantly for the rest of your life. You absolutely can pass down any of the money you get from social security. You’re not guaranteed 100% of what you put into regular retirement accounts either, if the market crashes so does everything tied to it.
    
    source
    folekaule@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    I see…I was thinking in terms of health insurance where you do get “payouts” regularly. I was unaware that you can pass down social security benefits (sorry from your spouse getting more benefits).
    
    My understanding was you can’t take it now than X amount per month, so you can’t “take it with you”. Market fluctuation aside, my retirement savings (minus taxes) can go to my children as inheritance.
    
    Thank you for the explanation.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
Rhaedas@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
The last part is exactly what they want you to think. It WAS meant to be sufficient, but that would have cost someone else, so they invented the idea of people taking care of themselves with the 401K invention. Now when your SS doesn't mean your needs, they can point and say, well, you should have saved up better.

There used to be company pensions too, but they've slowly eroded away as younger people entered their jobs. My job gave me the option years ago of keeping the pension going or converting it to a secondary 401k that would earn lots of money, promise. I said hell no, give me my pension.

source
- folekaule@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  But isn’t thay the reality now? Even though it wasn’t meant that way, it has been changed over the years. I’m genuinely curious. I’m not saying it should be that way, just that my understanding of how it works was that you can’t expect to get your deductions back.
  
  source
  - Rhaedas@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    It's not a matter of getting back what you put in, but to be able to not worry about supporting your basic needs in the last part of life. That many have paid into the system their entire working life and it isn't enough without some extra supplement suggests it's not working well enough.
    
    source
    folekaule@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Ok, I see what you’re saying now. Yes, 100%, we should take care of everyone’s basic needs as a society and that’s far from working. I think where my (in retrospect, very poorly worded) original post came from is that people think that is works like a bank and that the intent is that you just withdraw it later like tax-free savings and then are surprised to learn that the math includes accounting for people dying off before they can collect benefits. I think people should know that they are paying into a pool and by design “their money” is being paid out to other people, and that it is on the whole a good thing.
    
    source