1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Our Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment?"  The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a "Federal Benefit Payment." This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too. It totaled 15.3% of our income before taxes. If an average of $30K per year is earned over a working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security. If we calculate the future value of our monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both the earner and his/her employers contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working we'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved! This is our personal investment. Upon retirement, if we took out only 3% per year, we’d receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month. That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it’s a fact). And that retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until the age of 98 if retired at age 65. I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts. Instead, Washington pulled off a bigger "Ponzi scheme" than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer. But is it our fault Washington misused (stole) our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a "benefit", as if we never worked to earn every penny of it. Washington stole our investment and it isn’t a charity!  We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Please bring some sense into our government.  Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.  Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income