Oh joy! I received in the mail today my annual statement from the Social Security Administration!
For those of you living outside of the U.S. of A., we hard-working American peons receive a statement in the mail from the Social Security Administration once a year detailing how much we've paid into our skimpy Federal retirement benefits and how much our estimated payment will be. Or, if you believe the doomsayers, how much the government is going to fuck us for and not pay us when we reach retirement age, while making up some bullshit excuse about the funds running out and hoping that by then, we will be too old and feeble to run riot in the streets.
Looking over my estimated benefits, I can't help but feel anything but, erm, socially secure about the future. If I retire at age 62, for example, I could pull down a monthly Social Security payment of $725, i.e., jack shit. BUT, if I choose to keep working and stress myself out until age 70, that payment would double to a whopping $1450! And after I think to myself, "Wow! I'd only have to work eight more years and I could double my benefit", the next thought that comes to mind is the fact that the $1450 would be valued in year 2032 dollars. At 4% annual inflation I would need $3865 per month in order to live at the same rate as my age 70 retirement payment quoted today. Yes, that is fucked up.
Oh well, guess that I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if the horse is pulling out 6.2 percent of my paycheck and not promising that I'll ever see any of it when I actually do retire. So in actuality I should give the Social Security system, and Uncle Sam in general, a big thumbs up. And while I'm giving the thumbs up, I'll pretend that I am Australian.
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