by Robert Reich:As if you didn’t already have too much to worry about, Social Security’s funds

[SheilaT]

86. Given that the average Social Security check is

nearly $1,200 a month, some $14,400 per year, which is not only a bit above the poverty line but nearly three times half the poverty rate, you clearly do not know what you are talking about. If that's all you have, then yes, you are no doubt hurting financially.

My Social Security check, which is less than that average, is more than my mortgage payment. And I live in a city -- Santa Fe -- that locals consider very expensive. Clearly none of those locals have ever tried to rent or buy in NYC, California, or Chicago just to name a few genuinely expensive places.

And here's the part that continues to amaze me about how so many people never save a penny: Even when I was married our income at best was just above the median.

When friends tell me the sad story of their young adult child whose new car was totalled in an accident (no one hurt, which is genuinely wonderful) but because the loan amount was more than the value of the car at that point, I simply wonder what that young adult was thinking to buy an expensive car with a loan like that. So many people make such bad choices about basic things.

Yes, Social Security needs to be expanded and shored up. And we need a genuine single payer health care system of some sort.
But please don't misrepresent what we do have.