Get rid of the illegal alien and welfare freeloaders, re-establish the lock box, and SS is golden.
Why is this angle never talked about ?
Agree. SS has to be separated from welfare programs and disability programs ( so many fake injuries ).
Because it makes sense!
I think separate the SSI from regular social security. Never understood why the let that happen. SSI should come from general fund and be more difficult to get.
There is no lock box, there never was. One doesn’t exist.
I remember Gore promising to put SS in a lockbox and Bush said he would too. They were both lying there a** off.
Oh you could put cash in vault somewhere, but cash loses purchasing value every year. That’ would be crazy to do so.
They put the money in the most risk free investment there is. That’s US Treasury bonds and notes. They are considered risk free because they are backed by the US government. And people and the market made up by people still consider that safer than individual companies or foreign countries or foreign companies.
But that gets criticized because the debt issuer is also the Federal government. And the reason the government issues debt in the first place is to spend it.
So future SS recipients have a big IOU from the Federal Government. And that is the closest thing to a lock box that exists.
But your point about getting rid of illegal aliens and welfare freeloaders is well taken. A lot of people signed up on SS disability during and after the 2008 financial Crisis. Some of those are starting to come off of that since the job market has improved but many are still scared and have gotten used to the free money. Continuing to improve the economy will continue to move some of those out. We might need to provide incentives to get others to try the job market again.
There is no lock box, there never was. One doesn’t exist.
I remember Gore promising to put SS in a lockbox and Bush said he would too. They were both lying there a** off.
Oh you could put cash in vault somewhere, but cash loses purchasing value every year. That’ would be crazy to do so.
They put the money in the most risk free investment there is. That’s US Treasury bonds and notes. They are considered risk free because they are backed by the US government. And people and the market made up by people still consider that safer than individual companies or foreign countries or foreign companies.
But that gets criticized because the debt issuer is also the Federal government. And the reason the government issues debt in the first place is to spend it.
So future SS recipients have a big IOU from the Federal Government. And that is the closest thing to a lock box that exists.
But your point about getting rid of illegal aliens and welfare freeloaders is well taken. A lot of people signed up on SS disability during and after the 2008 financial Crisis. Some of those are starting to come off of that since the job market has improved but many are still scared and have gotten used to the free money. Continuing to improve the economy will continue to move some of those out. We might need to provide incentives to get others to try the job market again.
because there is no “lock box” for one. There is no “fund” out there that is backstopping SS. The “fund” is not cash in a money market account, equities, investments, or even fungible bonds. Instead it is “non marketable government securities” or a fancy word for IOUs. That paragon of fiscal responsibility (republicans and dems), the US Congress, spent every last dime and replaced it with promises.
If you are stupid enough to believe the promises of the government (ANY government) then you deserve the penury coming in your old age, and it IS coming, unless you are lucky enough to die before the game of musical chairs stops. You can tie up the border tight as a drum (and we should), expel every illegal immigrant AND kill every wasteful social spending wealth transfer program (and we should!) but that will change precisely ZERO in this equation.
The only things that can possibly fix this are poison to your average conservative. They are a full audit of the federal reserve (which will lead to its diestablishment), a return to honest currency, a repudiation of the ENTIRE premise of welfare (which includes the far far larger practice of corporate subsidies), and reject the idiotic flag waving interventionism of the pentagon gorged neocon John Bolton type war mongers who are braying for a war with Iran and Venezuela, Syria and a half dozen other African hotspots, and GET US OUT of the 150+ countries where we have military bases.
Till we have some sense of our own fiscal (and military, and moral) limitations, we will stagger drunkenly on towards fiscal collapse...., but that flag a wavin’ will sure look pretty!
You need to read the annual report from the SS Trustees. SSis unsustainable. Taxes need to be raised and /or benefits reduced. We are an aging population. 10,000 baby boomers retire every day until 2030. The population over 65 will double by 2030.
SS is a pay as you go system. Today’s workers pay for today’s retirees. In 1950 there were 16 workers for every retiree; today that number is 3 to one; and in 2030 it will be two to one.
Because it would work, but not buy any votes.
Get rid of false disability claims and I’d bet we’d be solvent for quite a while.
You are absolutely right! More people working and less on the dole (especially non-citizens) is the answer.
No its not!
It can never be golden if its funding mechanism continues in its present form.
Fundamentally its set up as a Ponzi Scheme!
Like a Ponzi Scheme the current crop of people (those working!) pay the benefits of those retired. As long there are sufficiently large numbers of people paying in it sort of works. Think of it as a bucket with a hole in it. If you can pour money in faster then it leaks out you can sort of keep the bucket full. In 1940 its was like 159 people paying in for everyone receiving benefits today (2013 figure!) its like 2.8 to one. (You don’t have to believe me. Here are those rations from SSA’s own web site https://www.ssa.gov/history/ratios.html ) Congress of course has made things worse every times the Rats need to bribe a constituency they reach into social security and make them eligible. The GOP rather then truly be fiscally responsible lest borrow from the social security money flow.
By the way as near as I can tell medicad/medicare is set up the same way but worse.