No, people who have paid into Social Security do not have an ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY, they believe they are OWNERS.
At the same time i don't believe the poll results are legitimate. Most of us know very well how Social Security works ~ and it works just like any Ponzi scheme except on the payout side. If it were a real Ponzi scheme the first folks paid off would have gotten back much more than they'd paid in ON THE VERY FIRST PAYBACK.
Remember the deal with a successful Ponzi scheme is that you get the first dozen or so participants to get back truly incredibly large paybacks very early in the game. They do your advertising for you.
Now I don't know if you'd noticed but with Social Security if you don't pay they send guys after you with guns. Ponzi didn't do that. Makes a huge whopping difference in the way the game is run too.
And that is the key to explaning it to the public.
"See, back in the 30s, and even for many decades after, the government told us that we were paying into a fund that would benefit us, something that was our money we could access later. But as most of us know, they lied to us, all we were doing was paying for people already getting benefits. Which is fine, you may say, except, that over time, fewer and fewer workers are paying in for more and more recipients, it's simple math, but, it's not our fault, we were sold a bill of goods. None of us were alive when all this happened.
So now, we have to figure out what to do to ensure that the payments that our young people are paying into now, don't turn into a whole lot of nothing when THEY reach retirement. That's what I'm talking about, not taking anything away from anyone currently recieving SS or about to do so."
Their belief is not supported in US law. It needs to be. That's where reform starts. And the system does need reform, or it will collapse!
Social Security has been a fraud since day 1. Consider, for example, the employer contribution
. That label is an attempt by Congress to deceive the public into believing they are not paying half the tab. But any idiot knows that the employer contribution is simply a hidden part of employee compensation that is being taxed away.
My first job at 13 was working in the neighborhood grocery/deli, delivering, stocking shelves and using the cash register. The owner would have fired me in a NY minute if I screwed up. So, you're wrong. Not the first time and won't be the last.
The basic premise is correct. SocSec is a ponzi scheme. Next time, try thinking like a conservative and leave the comic books closed.
Btw, I said "many Americans have an entitlement mentality" and don't want to see any reform. Not all, however. Not certain what you mean by "OWNERS". Maybe you meant, ownership. Either way, the gov't owes people who paid into SocSec the money they had confiscated from them by the Feds.