“The first reported Social Security payment was to Ernest Ackerman, who retired only one day after Social Security began. Five cents were withheld from his pay during that period, and he received a lump-sum payout of seventeen cents from Social Security.” (cite http://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html#firstcheck)
“The first monthly payment was issued on January 31, 1940 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. In 1937, 1938 and 1939 she paid a total of $24.75 into the Social Security System. Her first check was for $22.54. After her second check, Fuller already had received more than she contributed over the three-year period. She lived to be 100 and collected a total of $22,888.92.” (https://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/idapayroll.html)
I don’t know what is worse. The fact that it has always been broken, or the fact that they openly show us it has always been broken.
