Blessed Are Today’s Recipients of a Teetering Social Security

As a baby boomer who deals with Social Security and Medicare issues on a daily basis, my generation should be so lucky to be like Norbert and Edna Talbert (“Retirees Face New Rule on Income,” Dec. 27).

To illustrate, if Mr. Talbert got his first job at age 18 in 1941 and earned the maximum “taxed” Social Security and Medicare income of $3,000 that year and continued to earn the maximum earnings each year until he retired at age 65 in 1988 (when the maximum taxed was $39,600), he would have paid a total of about $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes over that 47-year period.

The Talberts are currently receiving about $1,800 a month from Social Security and benefits with a value of $650 a month from Medicare. Over the last six years of retirement, the Talberts have received more than $175,000 in benefits on their $34,000 investment. And if they live another 10 years, as they should, they will reap total benefits of almost $500,000 on that $34,000 investment.

The Talberts and all retirees today, rather than feeling “double-crossed,” should feel blessed.

As for us baby boomers, I have paid in more than $100,000 to date (I’m self-employed), and by the time I turn 67, with no increases in Social Security taxes, I will pay in more than $400,000 to a system that will be bankrupt.

The system will fail for members of my generation unless benefits for retirees like the Talberts and others with other income of $30,000 or $40,000 or $50,000 or more are drastically reduced. In case we have all forgotten, Social Security was created as a safety net, not as a retirement supplement for those not in need.

Certain members of Congress seem to understand this and they may even have the guts to take on the American Assn. of Retired Persons and its counterparts.

DENNIS ROBMAN

Santa Monica