Care to guess what government program affecting every citizen is comprised of:

• 2728 “core” rules
• Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of codicils explaining the “core” rules.
• Formulas like this or even more complex*:
B(a) = PIA(a) (I-e(n)) (I+d(n)) Z(a) + max((.5 PIA*(a) – PIA(a) (I+d(n))) E(a), 0) (1-u(a,q,n,m)) D(a)

Social Security!

Finding myself with considerable downtime and being the age where I could file a claim I thought it was time to educate myself on the labyrinth of Social Security.  Checked out Get What’s Yours from the library.  130  pages into the book and already have had some preconceptions about Social Security blown out of the water.  For example: those estimated benefit amounts they provide in the hardcopy statement you receive in the mail or via the online tool are very likely to be incorrect.  Worse yet is that the amount can be significant.

The book points out numerous examples of how the arcane rules of Social Security lead people to make very costly errors when filing their claims, how incorrect interpretations and advice by Social Security personnel negatively impact the amount people receive  and so forth.  All typical of any government bureaucracy.  Those who advocate the government taking over healthcare insurance  should peruse this book and ask themselves why they think a healthcare bureaucracy would be any different.

* This equation gives the benefit B, in dollars I presume, for a person of age a.