In the comments to iceman's must-read diary relating an encounter with two retired Tea Party zealots at the bus stop, cotterperson reminds us of the common defense thrown down by retired people when they are reminded that they get healthcare from the gumment:
"That's my money! I paid for my Medicare!"
This oft-heard claim is, in the words of the Car Talk guys, BOOOOOOOOOOOGUS!
While there are a great number of people who've paid more into Medicare than they've received in payouts, they accomplished this, by and large, by dying before becoming eligible for benefits. The average retiree has barely ponied up the tip, let alone paid for the feast.
Your yammerhead brother-in-law won't believe it, but it's not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of simple, easily-accessed fact. Public record, actually.
The Urban Institute has helpfully published those facts in a report, which they update occasionally as new numbers are available.
Since that report is based on those notoriously biased and hard to understand digits, they even include pretty pictures. Like this one:
Let's say yammerhead BIL's just retired from a decent, middle management job, pulling in 43K a year. Your sister's retired too, though she didn't have quite the earnings he did, maybe 20K (hey, it's the woman's job is to take care of the kids, right?).
They can expect to pull an average of $357,000 from Medicare over the rest of their lives. Lot of stents and bedside commodes there. A lot more, in fact, than can be purchased with the $86,000 they put into the system.
Yammerhead BIL's argument does hold water when it comes to Social Security. He is in the first cohort of retirees to legitimately claim that he "paid for Social Security." In fact, he paid $37,000 more than he'll probably get out, about 15 months' worth of benefits.
I know he might be pissed that somebody like my mom gets his extra year of checks, but tell him to calm down. It could have been a lot worse had he not gotten help from a bunch of damned illegal immigrants.
What? Those moochers with their phony IDs?
Yes, those "moochers." In 2009, employers collected payroll deductions on wages totaling $72.8 Billion-with-a-B from millions of workers who couldn't be matched with legitimate SS accounts. Money that yammerhead BIL's collecting right now.
In the end, I know none of this is going to convince him that he's not the rugged, bootstrap puller he fancies himself. After all, these are numbers and everyone knows that numbers you don't like are "lies, damned lies and statistics."
Still, on behalf of all of us still working to pay for the colonoscopy he so sorely needs, allow me to say, "You're welcome."