[Hoodat]

IS THE SOCIAL SECURITY LOCKBOX A MYTH?

Are you high? Is the Pope Catholic? Is snow white?

[DManA]

Is that a rhetorical question or do you really not understand it.

[windsorknot]

The Social Security lockbox is as real as man-made global warming.

[kabar]

The SS Trust Fund contains over $2 trillion in non-market T-Bills, which can only be redeemed by the USG. Technically, SS has the money to fund the program fully thru 2036, but the reality is that in order for the USG to pay for the program, it must come up with the money from the General Fund to redeem the SSTF T-bills, which are really just IOUs.

The SSTF is included in the $14 trillion national debt and is under the heading "Intragovernmental Holdings," to distinguish it from the publicly held debt. The fact that it is included in the national debt demonstrates that the SSTF represents an unfunded liability.

[R0CK3T]

Its is a PONZI scheme, always has been.

[SteamShovel]

IS THE SOCIAL SECURITY LOCKBOX A MYTH?

YES.

I believe it is impossible for such a fund to even exist. There isn't a bunch of cash laying around in a safe. Money would have to be invested in something for a fund to exist, and just where is big enough to take this amount of money?

The USA has spent it all on the premise that the spending IS the investment.

[dirtboy]

On Neil Cavuto’s “Your World” recently, Nancy Altman, the Co-director of Social Security Works, stated that there is plenty of money available to fund Social Security for many years to come, and Cavuto rebutted with, in so many words, “No there isn’t”.

And that was it. End of discussion. Cut to a commercial.

Nobody howled, “Well, that’s a darned lie!”. Nobody whipped out a stack of evidence substantiating their claim. The viewer was left sitting there, open-mouthed, wondering, “What did I just see?”

You based your entire rant on that? You've got to be kidding me. It's basic economic knowledge that the Social Security surplus has been spent and the so-called trust fund is devoid of any kind of real asset. What we need to do is get Washington to stop pretending otherwise.

[george76]

What kind of retirement would you have if you kept borrowing from your savings ?

You will just end up with IOUs — from yourself.

[Beowulf9]

“Social SECURITY” the name itself is an oxymoron.

[RC one]

The trust fund is full of Treasury bills. If you and I had a safe full of treasury bills, we could hand them to the government when they mature and demand payment in federal reserve notes (because that’s what you do with IOUs). But what does the government do when it has to redeem treasury notes? When it owes it itself? As we will see in a couple of weeks, they raise the debt ceiling and borrow more money. This is my understanding of it at least.

[avacado]

Your post didn’t answer the question. Is social security just IOUs or is there any money in it right now and if so how much?

[Georgia Girl 2]

Its easy to understand. The Congress raided the Social Security “lockbox” years ago. Now its called pay as you go or basically IOU. There is no SS fund, no SS lockbox, no SS trust etc etc. It just gets paid out of the yearly appropriations.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

IS THE SOCIAL SECURITY LOCKBOX A MYTH?

Of course.

When seniors retire the goods that they consume must be produced from someone else that year. More people on the government, less working, no matter how you try to add it up. If on the other hand, they had been storing grain and TV’s all this time, they would be able to get by on their own. Even if they invested that money in the stock market, they will live off of someone else.

Did you know that about 45% of the $14T debt is SS debt, i.e. money the government owes to itself?

[SERKIT]

Oh, the lock box exists alright. The money fell out and the slot in the top was stuffed with IOUs. The location of the lock box is at the Social Security Office, and I’m sure if you ask for a tour, they’d be happy to show it to you. Ask for Lenny.

[dirtboy]

I contend that, in varying degrees, they all are. They treat us like school children. They answer our questions with half-truths and little white lies, because, to quote Jack Nicholson, “We can’t handle the truth!”

So tell us how someone who points out the salient fact that the Trust Fund is not a real asset is lying?

It's an absurd premise that is indicative of your inability to stick to the subject further along.

[tumblindice]

Like Pandora’s box, the only thing left in the “SS lockbox” is `Hope’ (and handful of change).

[taxtruth]

Social Security is a “pay-as-you-go” system. This means that when you work, the government takes your money and gives it to Social Security recipients. In order to get workers to accept this system, the government promises to take other people's money and give it to you when you retire. Think of it as an exponentially larger version of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

[jwalsh07]

Here's how social security works.

You pay your FICA.

Congress spends it funding current retirees and any ecess funds are spent on beetle dung research.

Congress issues an IOU to the SS Trust Fund for the amount they spent on beetle dung research and other things not related to Social Security.

The IOU, in the form of a worthless bond, is worthless.

Your SS contributions are not yours. If you die the money you contributed goes down the rat hole. Your loved ones get nothing, nobody passes go.

Rinse and repeat until the scheme falls under it's own weight.