Hello Tasha 
My understanding of social security (in the Sates, though I am in Canada) is that people put their own money into it like a pension plan, but then the government used the money for something else (in other words, they stole it) and then acted as if people were asking for hand-outs when they were not. Here we do have OAS (Old Age Security) which anyone who is a citizen/landed immigrant(?) over 65 can collect, whether they contributed to the economy or not. We also have CPP (Canada Pension Plan). Some people here have fabulous pension plans which they have paid into... working for the government seems to pay the most in that regard. Anywho… I am glad you found the video interesting. I did too Though I did not agree with all points, especially the part about our parents' generation making their lives all about their children. My parents had eleven children, and our lives as children revolved around looking after everybody else. My mother was also the disciplinarian because my dad was so busy providing for the family, working a full time job and having other money-making enterprises on the side, such as owning rental properties and selling produce a farmer's markets, something I voluntarily joined him and my brothers in doing as an eight year old to escape the never-ending dullness of women's work
Yeh Mag my Mum had to look after 6 wild kids - a whack across the back of our legs with a belt or her hand was a good way to keep us in control! She tried other methods first, but resorted to that & I don't think it did us any harm. Believe me, I think we were better human beings for being disciplined so strictly. It's funny, cos she never hit her grandkids or great grandkids. She was probably waaay stressed is my guess, as she didn't work out of the home.
11 kids, wow. Are you all close cos we aren't - we all went our separate ways now. My Mum came from a family of 12 I think, but one of the kids was fostered out as my granny had her out of wedlock, and we think a few died (unsure re that). No wonder the women in those days died young.
SS is very hard to get here now down under. Everybody used to go 'on the pension' as it was called, but the govt toughened up all the rules. I don't even know how people survive on a pension TBH.
My Dad was going to accept a job in Canada years ago, then changed his mind at the last minute. I remember crying & feeling so disappointed that we weren't going. We might have been neighbours!!
That is awful re people's pensions being stolen. I've heard of that happening down here, but nobody seems to do anything about it, as nobody wants to offend the high flyers who contribute to the politician's campaigns, or offend the big banks.
I'd like to visit Canada but flying for more than 2 hours gets me antsy. It's bad enough flying around Australia for work. I heard Canada has a health care system similar to ours - Medicare or something offering free health care for all.
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