As a part-time "retiree," and let it be said there is NO such thing as being "retired" from daily work, to the end of one's days; here are a few initial comments before a deeper discussion:
1) I am an avid Tea Partier, and I don't think there is any imminent Tea Party agenda to outright eliminate Social Security; at least for those who already are living within the "contract." There is every reasonable belief that that program can be gradually eased to something less than it is today, for instance no sixty-two option and no entitlement until 69 or 70 (viable ages in this modern world).
2) The forty thousand per year used in the spread sheet example is in no way necessary. An individual can live very comfortably in a decent area in the US with parks, tidal access, medical care, telecommunications, etc. on twenty four thousand dollars per year, given Medicare. An elderly couple only increases that comfort with the two incomes.
3) As one of the article comments expresses, taking the individual SS contribution during one's salaried years and diverting that into private investment is every bit as sound as a government Ponzi scheme. This begs the whole question of the productivity of centralized bureaucracy versus capitalistic enterprise. If there is NO free lunch then there is NO reason to trust in government Ponzi schemes over honest productivity.
4) Which brings up my initial point: you do, and should, work until you die. There is a matter of under what stress one wants to do that, but it is silly to believe it simply goes away, no matter how much one initially fools one's self.
FYI the Tea Party is so far ahead of the political elite in terms of understanding, and being sensitive, to human nature, that many of those politico's have come to genuinely hate the revelation. They live on BullCrap.
The US can be entirely prosperous, internally, across its entire population (with elimination of illegals) when that population abandons its phoniness, and faces the realities of civilized life on Earth.
Johnny Suntrade
Thank you Johnny for your kind words. I’ll respond to this: “taking the individual SS contribution during one’s salaried years and diverting that into private investment is every bit as sound as a government Ponzi scheme.”
In my life, I contributed 15% religiously to my 401k (counting company contribuions) and 15% to SS (counting employer contributions). At the end of my working life, I am seeing my SS as $1400/month, or about equal to a $300k annuity, while my 401k is $400k. So my investment in 401k did work out better, but not extraordinarily better. And I had the benefit of the 1990s when the stock market was soaring.
The problem with the idea of diverting the 15% we (together with our employer) put into SS into a new, interest bearing account, is that it strands the people now in SS. That’s what makes the solution to this problem (SS insolvency) so very difficult. If we could go back in time, we could fix it from the start, but we locked ourselves into this program that cannot be easily halted. If those in SS are to continue receiving their checks, we workers need to continue to pay into the system, or we need massive additional borrowing by the federal government. I can’t see any other option, and I can’t see renegging on the promises to our retirees, who paid into it for their parents decades and expect to receive the same from us.
“Which brings up my initial point: you do, and should, work until you die. There is a matter of under what stress one wants to do that, but it is silly to believe it simply goes away, no matter how much one initially fools one’s self.”
“Work until you die”.
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
See how many Republicans and/or conservatives are gonna get elected under that philosophy!
Just laughin’...