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What I don't like is that women (or men) who never worked can collect half their working spouses SS! What the?! I thought you had to put into the system to get it out. I can understand if the working spouse dies and then the non-working spouse collects on that benefit. But, for ex. - My sister in law- who never worked because my brother did very well for himself- is going to collect half his SS (which is the max since he is a high earner (and believe me he deserves every penny of it))- almost equal to my Full SS- and I worked for 40+ years full-time day in and day out(highest I ever earned was $50,000 and I am still working at 58 years old)-while I was getting up at 4am and rushing off to day care with my son, stressed out, exhausted, hating every minute of it, - she got to stay in her pj's and wave to her daughter as she got on the school bus!!! More power to her (she's a lovely person), but should she be able to collect SS benefits? I would think not!
Somehow this does not seem right for workers/taxpayers to have to pay for...but I guess the government thinks so....
Now some people will argue that these non-working spouses sacrificed to stay home while others were out working on their careers, etc. Well- that does not fly with me- careers for most average people are just hell-hole, drudgery jobs and working women and men have to do it all- work BOTH on their jobs AND to raise their families and take care of their home, multitasking and juggling everything to fit in around their jobs. I sure would have liked to just stay home and work on the household chores and take care of my son rather then work and do everything else around it. So, should we have all just stayed home? Should households where neither spouse works then be entitled to SS benefits since they were both at home supposedly taking care of their homes and families? Who then would pay into the system? So this argument doesn't hold water...
Just a pet peeve of mine when it comes to SS benefits...
You probably wouldn't be happy to know that three of Johnny Carson's marriages lasted over 10 years, so all three were able to claim 50% of his SS benefits.