>>>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/09/17/auditors-social-security-may-have-overpaid-disability-claims-by-1-3-billion/
>>>
>>>This is a 2-party issue
>>
>>Yes, it is. Tax cheating has a long history and it is not local to the U.S.
>>
>>Personally I have never cheated on my taxes. The potential downside has always seemed a lot steeper than saving some bucks. I also consider it a price of living in the society we live in. Lots of people like to holler about big government but remove specific programs and they start squealing like pigs stuck under a gate. Case A: the elderly. They have received way more than they ever put in. But for a politician to talk about cutting Medicare or Social Security is to step on the third rail. They tend to vote and they've got time on their hands.
>
>>>Case A: the elderly. They have received way more than they ever put in.
>
>Are you sure of that?
>If a person starts work at say, 18, and works till age 65 retires and then dies at age 75
>if you consider the employer and employee portion (if you don't think that the employer thinks of his portion as compensation for the employee.. ask any small business owner) I think the math will show that that person has the retirement cost covered.
>
>Medicare is a different story. Hospital and pharmaceutical costs are insane.

Let's just say we disagree about SS and let it go at that. There are numbers showing what early recipients paid and what they received. I'm not saying retirees can retire on it, because they can't, but their personal cost-benefit is very much in their favor.

Hospital and pharmaceutical costs are insane, you're right about that. What we pay is out of orbit compared to other developed nations. Health care reform was badly overdue.