That horse has left the barn—too many smart people can do the math on the cost of kids—and too many smart people see the size of the national debt and don’t want their kids to be enslaved by it.
i did not have my kids so i would have free nursing care in my old age. That sounds awfully selfish to me.
I never understood why companies that produce baby/toddler clothes, toys, and all the other things that go along with bringing up a child, never opposed abortion.
Supposedly companies only care about profits and the almighty dollar. Not so - in this case anyway.
Our culture has been poisoned to the point where even self preservation takes a back seat to political correctness.
I stopped reading when you said children should help their parents in old age.
IMO you are talking fantasy land here. That concept went out somewhere in the 60’s - 70’s era. Today it’s many parents helping their kids well into their 30’s & 40’s, where they are so worthless and dependent on freebies they will not be able to take care of themselves, let alone their parents too.
Granted, this is not everyone. For the balance that can afford to take care of their parents we need to adjust our culture to re-accept that concept. Good luck there.
How about we just forget about trying to dream up ever more complicated ways to prompt up a pyramid scheme that is designed to fail?
Since people of my generation are being forced to pay for a system that we will never get a penny from, the sooner it fails, the better, I say. Politicians will never be motivated to get a better system in place until it fails completely.
Are you going gen a parent!
I don’t want to be a burden on my children. Your idea is tin foil hat, planned economy crap
Step away from your keyboard Brian. Stewie must have tightened your collar to much.
Currently, 50% of your SS taxes are paid by you. 50% come from your employer. Nearly all of these funds are immediately turned around and paid out to current SS recipients.
In the future this would remain the same except for the fact that you could now earmark the 50% that comes from you to go to a specific individual or individuals instead of going to random old people you don't know.
Let's say Granny and Grandpa were supposed to get $24,000 from SS this year.
25 year old Johnny who makes $50k can send his personally paid SS taxes ($3,100) to Granny and Grandpa instead of giving it to FedGov. The other $3,100 of his SS taxes will still be paid by Johnny's employer to FedGov.
Granny and Grandpa can take 50% of their allotted disbursement from FedGov ($12,000) and then take as much as their kids and grandkids (or anyone else who loves them) can give them. They might be getting $6,200 from one son who makes $100K and $12,400 from a daughter who's husband makes $200K but has no elderly relatives of his own and $1,860 from each of their 4 other younger grandkids who only make $30K per year and $3100 from a nephew who makes $50K and who's parents are both deceased.
That would be $12K from FedGov + $6200 + $12400 + $1860 +$1860 + $1860 + $1860 + $3100 or......$41,140 (compared to $24K)
The kids and grandkids would notice no difference to their paychecks what so ever. Granny and Granpa would be rewarded for raising successful, productive children and grandchildren.
If there is another elderly person who was not as successful, they can just take their normal disbursement that they would have been entitled to in the first place.
I am in my mid 40's and I have been dreading for a while the fact that when I am old and feeble, I will be fully reliant on the good graces of the 3-M's to support me....
Mexicans Muslims and Millenials
I would much rather prefer relying on my kids.
When it was created, there were over 150:1 people paying in to each person receiving benefits. That ratio is now below 3:1. Thanks largely to Social Security and other entitlements, the U.S. has over 200 trillion in unfunded liabilities, a 21 trillion national debt, to a $18.5 trillion GPD that has fiance all the debt.
Social Security was really a tax sold as a safety net. Now that safety net is going to eventually bankrupt us. No economic system that can survive consuming more than it produces. Most solutions to Social Security talk around or ignore that fact. The only way to fix this is to gradually phase it out, make it voluntary or end it entirely, and live with the fact we as a nation we can't spend our way out of every problem we have.