I agree with what you say up to a point. I'm betting that you are not in your 6th decade, probably not even close or you wouldn't be so eager to trash SS.
Reforming the system is like changing tires on a car rolling down I94 at seventy MPH. The tough nut to crack is what do you do for the people who have been paying into the system for their entire working life and are now nearing retirement. We all realize that the "trust fund" is a sham and the currents receipts are used to pay current benefits for current retirees. We realize that we face retirement with nothing but a government IOU in hand. Hopefully we have had enough sense to invest some of our discretionary income and most will have pensions and perhaps 401Ks and 403Bs. But we have sunk a lot of money into the system and expect to see a return even if it has to come from a generation x dude's FICA tax levy.
If you just abolish the system as you suggest,you will see a march on Washington that will look like a silver wave breaking on the shore as an army of crabby old f@rts descend on the halls of power and proceed to take the place apart, brick by brick. You'll see Representatives and Senators introduced to the fine art of tar and feathers complete with a ride out of town on a split rail and that's just for openers. I expect that some might seize the Treasury and proceed to print our own d@mn money.
Not a pretty picture is it? I've heard it said that life is beautiful and death is peaceful, it's the transition that's terrible! Everyone knows that the Social Security system as it is today is not sustainable for much longer. It is a 'Ponzi scheme' and it worked fine when there were sixteen contributors for every retiree. Now we are down to two to one, soon to be one to one as the 'baby boomers' start cashing out. Succeeding generations of spineless politicians have 'kicked the can down the road' by trying incremental patchwork fixes, but no really sound answer as appeared as yet.
Just refunding the money that you have paid in would be a start although hugely unfair to those singled out for the hose job of the century. I sat down with my FICA records (available from the SS administration, if you haven't checked your yet you should as you only get three years to catch any mistakes they might make in your account!) and totaled them up from 1960 to date. The sum was not enough to be really impressive and maybe you might be able to live on it for a year or two at most. Then I applied a little math to a spreadsheet and dug out the Dow averages for the last sixty some years. The glory of compound interest and the time value of money resulted in a seven figure nest egg! How 'bout that, I could live comfortably forever on just the interest! This fact bears out your original statement about people doing better for themselves which shouldn't be a problem as SS has a rate of return around 3% and the Dow is historically in the 10% to 12% range.
It is obvious that I will not be able to live 'comfortably' on SS alone, but I do have a valid claim on about $1400 a month. The question remains how do you intend to finance that current obligation?
Regards,
GtG
As I have said before, those in their later years deserve to have their SS paid as they have been robbed of their ability to the tune of 15% to save for themselves as much as they might have otherwise. But, I am 43 and would love to see my 25 years of payments result is little to nothing back with the money to be used to pay for those older folks unable to now save. I would have no problem not getting a dime and no problem with those older folks getting what is owed to them. The issue is we must stop this socialist nonsense and it won’t be pretty no matter how we do it but that is no excuse not to do it.
Well, I’m almost in my sixth decade and I think Social Security needs to go. I never believed it would be around by the time I’m old enough to qualify for payments. Count me in the crowd that’s more likely to believe in UFOs.