Social Security

[noonereal]

So this weekend I spent a few hours with my first wife helping my older daughter move into her McMansion on the hill. ( a few miles from me, man am I happy although why a new construction 4 bedroom house is needed for a first home I'll never understand... that is a different subject though)

She tells me how at years end her job will be eliminated along with hundreds of others. Tough situation, too young to retire, too old to get rehired. So we talk about social security... and to my amazement she has no clue how it works or that it is essentially regressive. $118,500 being the top amount for taxation.

I explain how the poor pay the same rate as the middle class and the rich... except that over the $118,500, nothing is paid. How the employer has to match what you pay and the self employed like myself has to pay double.

That she did not know shocked me but did not surprise me. Here is a women paying this tax for 50 years who is a genius, literally, who does not know such basic stuff. If she does not know, how many people culturally do?

my guess is very very few. It helps explain why so many vote GOP even though it's against their best interests.

I then think back to when I was 25, 30, 35, 40, 45.... I was so damned busy with career and family that I really did not know the details of much of anything.... not that I realized it at the time.

I was always comfortable though these years and if I hadn't become ill I really would not know what I know today. I guess it;s the perfect template for a government. Keep the people comfortable and occupied and you can then make a killing by exploiting them and their toil.

Thoughts?