So, Social Security's patting itself on the back again, huh? A 2.8% bump in benefits. Oh, joy. Let's not throw a parade just yet. They give us a crumb and expect us to be grateful while they pick our pockets in a dozen other ways.
This whole "Cost-of-Living Adjustment" (COLA) thing is a joke. A carefully crafted illusion. Sure, the checks will be a bit bigger—an extra $56 a month on average. Big freakin' deal. That barely covers the rising cost of, well, everything. Have they BEEN to the grocery store lately? Or tried filling up a gas tank? It's like they're calculating COLA based on the price of air.
And Shannon Benton from The Senior Citizens League is right – this "raise" is gonna hurt. You know it's bad when even the advocates are calling it out. But will anyone in Washington actually listen? Offcourse not.
Then you've got the earnings limits for early retirees. "Oh, you wanna work a bit to supplement your barely-livable Social Security check? Great! We'll just dock your benefits if you earn more than $24,800." It’s highway robbery, plain and simple. They dangle the carrot of early retirement, then punish you for trying to make ends meet. What kind of system is that?
Let's not forget the other sneaky ways they're squeezing us. The maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax is going up to $184,500. Meaning the wealthy get to contribute even less proportionally to the system. It's always the same story: the rich get richer, and the rest of us get the shaft.
And Medicare Part B premiums? Up 11.6% to $206.50. So, that "extra" $56 a month? Poof. Gone. Swallowed whole by healthcare costs. It's like giving with one hand and taking away with the other – only they're taking away a lot more.
All employees pay 7.65% of their salaries to fund Social Security and Medicare. Self-employed individuals pay a combined 15.3%. It's daylight robbery, I tell you.
Remember when the full retirement age was 65? Now they're inching it up to 67. And you just know they're not gonna stop there. They'll keep pushing it back until we're all working until we drop dead at our desks. Is that what FDR envisioned back in 1935? I doubt it.
So, what's the point of all this? Are we just supposed to accept that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme slowly collapsing under its own weight? Are we doomed to work until we die, just to barely scrape by in our so-called "golden years"? I don't know, maybe I'm being too cynical here. Maybe there's a magical solution just around the corner. But let's be real... I doubt it.
