Men's Group

more than a day or two in their lives, yet they collected the max on SS because their husbands did pretty well. My mother even collected a widow's SS payment of a few hundred bucks a month each for us kids until we turned 18.

And, my grandfather and both my mother's husbands managed to do pretty well so there was a fair amount of cash and investments around. And even pension money. And both of them outlived their husbands for quite a few years on that money.

But that was then, and this is now when we don't have that many long term marriages, long term jobs, with women are far more self-dependant and not seeing marrying well as goal in itself.

I always thought it was slightly out of balance that after you get screwed you whole life with low wages, you get it again with a low SS payment. Tough to find a practical and more equitable alternative, though. Perhaps we should start thinking about what a proper retirement should consist of and guarantee the minimum in housing, food, medical care, etc rather than simply concentrate on payments.