I have a bit of a gripe. I'm not a proponent of social insurance, so keep that in mind, and I know there are great reasons to have it and many people really NEED it, but my gripe is when people abuse it. More specifically when we allow them to abuse it. With something as big as social security there can be no real accountability, there can be no real efficient way to manage that money.
Let me get to my point. This week I overheard a man in the bank talking about when he is going to start collecting social security. He said that some time in the fall he will really start to hit his stride on the amount of SS he can collect. This is, of course, contingent on the fact that his income does not exceed a certain threshold. So, come October, Dave will reduce his hours to about 15 per week from 40. Long story short we will pay him more to work less. He is healthy as a horse (and he'll tell you all about it, even if you don't ask), likes to work, and still does a good job. Our system nearly forces this man to stop helping out our society by contributing by working. I really hope that in 40 years S.S. is a thing of the past and people are made to pay attention to their futures and save NOW so they can retire if they so chose.
