@Frthough I just checked your profile and saw you’re from Tallahassee, Florida. It’s understandable that you feel that way living in One of the more left leaning thing areas of Florida.

I have a few neighbors that are left leaning and one that is downright communist. Although I have a hard time trusting them, I am glad they have the right to believe what they want to believe and even to express their opinion/perspectives.

I believe our governor is a defender of our rights. I’ve seen his frustration with the left, but been glad to see he controls his disdain for their beliefs and affords them the same rights as those who agree with him. I hope he will be our next president. There may be no more hope left for this country, but I haven’t quite given up on us.

@Frthough I can’t say I understand.
I know my 83 year old mother who worked up to 16 hrs /day until she turned 62 has been collecting about $400/month (starting with less than $400 and now above $400 with cola). I think all she had to do was to pay her insurance premiums (automatically deducted from her paycheck while she was working) and work a minimum of 40 quarters. They determined the amount she would be paid based upon the average of her highest 40 quarters. Since she almost always worked for minimum wage or less (potentially tipped employees didn’t have to be paid minimum wage if the company took in less than 1/2 million dollars per year.). I don’t know that she has been tortured though.

I also know personally some people who are American citizens and who didn’t even work 40 quarters who receive monthly payments including an 85 year old man who earned a much larger salary for the few years he worked in the US and had his US employer pay ssi premiums for those years before he retired. (Most of his life he worked outside the US and didn’t pay ssi premiums). He receives a little over $800/mo and I don’t believe he was tortured.

I plan to apply for Social security in a few months, so I’d like to know what type of torture I should expect. Could you elucidate WRT the torture to which you referred?

@Frthough interesting. I agree with much that you have said.

My brother and I pick up some slack for my mother (we bought a run-down house near his home and gutted it; put a new roof (including replacing rotten wood) and new non-load bearing walls. Converted stove from gas to electric new bathroom including tub and shower with hand rails, etc&hellip. Then we moved her in. We provide her housing needs and her $400+ is sufficient to provide her other needs. Family taking care of family is the way God panned it. She accepts the social security and the Medicare because those were something she invested in while she was in her younger years (lying 7.63%of her income into this insurance).

I away so figured that SSI funding would go.bankrupt before I got a chance to collect, so I accepted the fact that it was actually the money I was paying in that was providing for her generation and her money was paying for her parents’ generation. With that in mind, my brother and I chose to do without and save for the future in the event we couldn’t continue to work. My brother lived on 1/3 of his income (except when he was a missionary receiving only $300/month). And I simply lived on what I needed for absolute necessities until I had enough to begin to use some for wants and still hold money for our retirement. We paid off our house in less than 7 years and then we were debt free. That allowed us to save and invest for retirement subsidization. My brother and I survived over 20 years in the military and were able to collect a pension. (We wouldn’t have stayed without that incentive.) and no, we didn’t always have great paying jobs allowing us to save such a large amount of our income. I had periods of time when I supported a family of 4 with spot jobs paying thing $5/hr with no benefits (one child was born with no insurance and I was able to negotiate the cost to half price if I paid the entire amount cash and we had no prenatal care.) when I started in the military l made $723/month and after saving $400/month plus investing $100/month in I bonds and paying $100/month for education investment plan, I was left (after tax) with $38 per month. That was enough to pay for toiletries and I still saved a few dollars cash for bigger purchases like a pair of civilian shoes (the military provided a barracks bunk for me and I was afforded free meals in the mess hall, so my needs were pretty much provided for, just like in a communist country (except that I only contracted for 4 years of this and I also got merit based promotions with raises in pay. I also opened a business (a restaurant) with my wife and we worked 130+ hours each per week for half a year until we could turn a profit with the business in the early 1990s . Then we started taking Sundays off (so we could attend church) which reduced our hours to 120 per week each.

I recognize the ugly parts about our government entitlements that were originally put in place for a safety net to keep people alive when circumstances made that difficult and were later turned into a means of control. I also recognize that we still have a capitalist society to a certain extent and it still rewards hard work and ingenuity. It isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s far better than socialism and we must work to keep the benefits of this form of government alive. (One where people help people (families and churches and other non-governmental groups) and we reduce to footprint of government and the power they can exert. That is certainly not the way those in government and the ignorant masses and the wef (one world government proponents) are pushing this country.

Remember to set your clocks appropriately on Nov 6 and your government on Nov 8.