Flaglady was right- The massive 2.7 or so trillion surplus should have been invested properly, and grown the way that the tax increase plan had designed it to cover the baby boomers that they knew were looming in the shadows waiting to retire- but that’s not what happened- the money was ‘borrowed’ by the government and used to cover costs accrued by the programs In the general fund and federal budget -
The government swears up and down they didn’t do anything wrong- and bristles at the word ‘stole’ but basically that is hat happened- Flag lady correctly points out that the government’s ‘borrowing’ has cost us in interest- interest we could have had had the money been used the way it was intended to
IF someone on your street offered to hold a chunk of your paycheck each week in a ‘lock-box/trust fund’ (again, lock box does not imply nothing can be done with the money), and they told you the m oney would always be available even if invested because they could sell those investments right away when needed, but they instead took and ‘borrowed’ your money, emptied the trust fund, paid off THEIR debts, then turned around and borrowed money to pay you when you ask for it AND charged you the interest they will have to pay o n the borrowed money, I don’t think that would be considered very ethical or right- and I think you’d agree that they mismanaged your money and cost you money, no?
Crude analogy I know, but it sort of represents what happened
But invested how? And in what? Do you mean in the stock market? Bond market?
The retirement accounts of government agencies routinely loan money to the rest of the government at interest. Apparently SS has been doing the same since it started.
“AND charged you the interest they will have to pay on the borrowed money,”
I don’t see how that part of your analogy holds up. How are you being charged interest by the SS Administration? When SS has excess funds they loan it out at interest. I don’t see where a mechanism even exists where you could be charged interest if they wanted to do it.