Social Security Is Not 'Insurance'

[srkruzich]

Does it top out?? It seems like ours has increased the past few years..
It is all so darn confusing to me.. makes me have a headache..

Alaskans do not pay into social security. They are exempt.

[Patriot]

Wilma,

You're quite right on that one.  I saw so much else stated as unsubstantiated fact that I missed the 'think'.  My apologies, Diane.

[Patriot]

Alaskans do not pay into social security. They are exempt.

I seem to recall that there are a couple of Texas communities that are somehow exempt as well.

[Patriot]

Was in the post office today.... and there were about 3 people standing outside discussing their SS. One old guy was hopping mad... I stopped and listened....
The government took his Mother's SS when she died. . he said they thumbed their nose at him with the answer of one less dependent to pay out~~ but here's your $200 one time death contribution.

You know, I reread this a bit ago and took another view.  I can see the old fell pissed as much or more at the insolent, arrogant attitude of the bureaucrat.  The termination of benefits, while sad, is a part of the system.  The vile approach to it by a government lackey would piss off a rock!

[Diane Amberg]

There are at least a dozen states in which teachers do not pay into or receiver SS unless they also have other jobs that do fall under SS and work enough quarters to pay in that way. Al's aunt was a Philadelphia teacher. She never paid in, never took out. My grandfather worked for the railroad . They had their own pension arrangement and had no connection to SS. He never paid in and never took out. Our New Castle County Police, by contract, do not pay into SS, nor will they get it from their careers as police officers here.   You can look up "Windfall Elimination Provision." For more yet, look up "Government Offset" that often affects husbands and wives in which one or both are Gov't employees. Not all Gov't jobs are still exempt. Some opted into SS years ago, some still haven't. Part of it went back to 1935 when it was thought that it was unconstitutional for the Federal Gov't to levy taxes on states, as in state employees.  Look it up for yourself.  No, it doesn't affect a local business owner. But there are fewer people paying in than is often thought.  Delaware and Maryland, where I taught didn't opt out, so I didn't get to avoid SS withholding either. As far as my comments on "maxing out" I didn't mean there was none, I just meant the average person on here probably isn't making more than the $100,000 plus dollars one would have to have made to have those last few checks each year free of SS with holding. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that. Now since the temperature seems to be rising again in a few, I will duck out once more to avoid being whipped, beat, slammed or otherwise spindled and mutilated for anyone's amusement.

[greatguns]

I've never had the problem of maxing out in August.  And God forbid that the child draws a check when the 25 year old Dad gets killed in an accident because, after all, that child at 5 years old hasn't paid into SS and the Dad hadn't paid in for 50 years.  I am so thankful I more in life to worry about than that.