About Me:

I have been a member of FR since June 13 of 2000. However, I’ve gone through a couple of screen names in that time. There have been a few instances where, for personal reasons, I wanted to recapture some anonymity. Sometimes I forget how public our little community is on FR, and how extensively the archives can be searched with Google. Be careful how much information about yourself you post online.

This particular name is derived from a pet name inadvertently created by my sister, who was unable to pronounce “Christopher” as a toddler, hence “Chrisser”. The name sort of stuck within the family, and then fell out of fashion as I got older.

I mentioned this old nickname to the love of my life (also a FReeper) and she adopted it.

Some thoughts:

Simple Truths:

Social Security
There's no trust fund, social security isn't a retirement plan, and there's no interest to earn. What you paid was a simple tax, and like all the other taxes you paid, the money's gone. (Worse than that, considering the deficit spending of recent decades, its gone, and then some)

"I just want what I paid in" - what you paid in is gone as surely as if you had burned the dollars in a bonfire, except you didn't get the benefit of the heat, light or marshmallow roasting opportunities. And interest? Don't make me laugh.
"I just want what's coming" - what's coming to you is, essentially, nothing, unless the federal government forcibly takes it from your children, grandchildren, friends and neighbors in the form of an ever-growing tax so that politicians and bureaucrats can redistribute it to you, Comrade, as a reward for not having died yet.

Your kids aren't going to enjoy paying through their noses to support your generation. It'll really suck for them if you're already dead 'cause... Guess what? They end up paying those taxes for all your buddies who outlived you.

You aren't going to benefit, as you'll never "get out" anything close to what you "paid in" to this ruse. So who does benefit? Well, there's the bureaucrats before whom you'll have to grovel and beg to obtain your "benefits". There's also the politicians who you let have the power to "save social security" because you didn't plan for the inevitability of your retirement. You'll recall that they're the ones who spent all the money you paid in over your lifetime in the first place, while telling you what a great retirement program they were building for you - good thing you trusted them to fix the problem they created. Smart move.

Ain't it a grand system? So much better than expecting a modicum of personal responsibility out of our citizens. Lets see what those politicians and bureaucrats can do to "fix" healthcare next.