Social Security could be big chill for 50-somethings

yahoo news ^ | 11-28-05 | susan page

[LouAvul]

.....snip.....

When President Bush proposed a Social Security overhaul this year as the top domestic priority of his second term, he promised the changes wouldn't apply to anyone 55 or older. But Bush's plan has gone nowhere, and actuaries say demographics and simple arithmetic will make it difficult to repeat that commitment in the future.

Americans who are 50-something - a point in life when many are registering peak earnings, seeing their children move into the workplace and beginning to make detailed plans for their retirement - could be in for some unwelcome surprises down the road.

"Keeping that promise this year made our job much more difficult," says Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "I don't see how you're going to be able to have that rule of thumb three years from now."

Americans moving toward retirement wouldn't lose benefits entirely. With no changes, payroll taxes would cover nearly 75% of current benefits when the trust fund is exhausted. But policymakers who want to keep the system solvent and protect low-income seniors could take steps that would affect those nearing retirement or already there: Trimming benefits, especially for the more affluent. Reducing cost-of-living adjustments. Subjecting more Social Security income to taxation.

Changes such as those become more likely for near-retirees as each year passes.

For one thing, the task of fixing Social Security gets harder as it moves closer to the time when it runs a deficit (starting in 2017, according to the Social Security Administration) or exhausts its trust fund entirely (in 2041).

For another, the number of people who are 55 and older is beginning to swell with members of the baby boom generation - the bulge in the population that helped create Social Security's predicament in the first place.

[LouAvul]

And DC is wanting to factor in immigrants (for social security benefits) who have never paid into the system? Figures.

[msf92497]

I'm 40'ish. Been paying into the system since I was a teenager. Won't see an F'ing dime. Nice to know the friggin' felonious mexican squatters will enjoy my largesse, while I work as a 75 yr old greeter at Walmart.

Slime.

[FreeKeys]

"Social Security benefits are not:guaranteed" - Michael Tanner, - HERE

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Insane System:  "Many people are unaware that the money that is taken out of their paychecks for Social Security is not -- repeat, not -- being put aside to pay for their retirement. That money is paying for people who are retired right now, and anything that is left over is being spent by politicians in Washington for anything from farm subsidies to Congressional junkets. ... Liberals are desperate to keep Social Security the way it is, because that means they can keep spending your money as they see fit and keep you dependent on them. That's what the welfare state is all about." -- Thomas Sowell, HERE. Further, the trustees of the Social Security Administration now say the system will begin paying out more in benefits than it receives in taxes in 2017, twelve years from now.

FIX IT NOW. EVERY year we wait costs $600,000,000,000 MORE !

FACTCHECK: The Democrats' Social Security calculator is a FRAUD

The REAL deal is HERE. | Compare the NEW & OLD systems HERE.

Some Americans ALREADY ENJOY Privatized Social Security

WORTH EMULATING: THE FEDERAL THRIFT SAVINGS PLAN

Social Security: Doing Nothing Costs TRILLION$  More Project on Social Security Choice Questions for the AARP  |  Is there a CRISIS? 'Transition Costs' are a Myth Answering Kinsley's idiocy S.S. Litmus Test   | S.S. links

Social Security Quick-Calculator: just plug in your age and gender

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"Your estimated benefits are based on current law.  Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time.  The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2042, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 73% of the scheduled benefits."-- printed at the bottom of page 2 of your Social Security statement

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"Private accounts and reduced benefits are the only way out of this one, folks. To make the program truly solvent, the government would have to confiscate so much wealth it would destroy the economy.  Maybe the Congress will make the right choice and fix the problem.    I doubt it." -- Neal Boortz, HERE. 

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"An economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenues to balance our budget --  just as it will never produce enough jobs or profits." -- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Social Security Private Account links

 

"DON'T EVEN TOUCH SOCIAL SECURITY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS, EVEN"
 

This Scott Stantis cartoon appeared in the March, 1996 issue of Reason magazine.

[rawhide]

while I work as a 75 yr old greeter at Walmart.

I think you will have a lot of competition for that 'greeter' job. Sorry, this is the way we are headed. Work until you drop.

[Brilliant]

How much will the social security IOU be in 2017? That's the amount that the American people will have to pay back to the trust fund in order to keep it going until 2041--and that's on top of the taxes they already pay. And then in 2041, it will be bankrupt anyway.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Chode]

what's the big deal??? it's all fiat money anyway... just fire up a few more printing presses!!!

[Prime Choice]

It's like I've been saying for a long time...

[msf92497]

Yeah, there will be some competition, but I'm working on a "soup nazi" spin...kinda the somehow endearing "anti-greeter" greeter. I'll get the gig.

[chas1776]

No job if you don't speak spanish.

[msf92497]

No. By then native english speakers will be the minority. Then we will be a protected class, right???

[Fledermaus]

Bush tried and no one wanted to help being cowards that didn't want to take the heat from the yapping idiots.

So...screw them. I don't want a thing done with Social Security. I don't want if reformed or fixed or tweaked or touched.

That way it will die on its own and I'll sit back and flip off the whiners wondering what happened while pointing out they didn't want anything to change. Then I'll eagerly point out I wasn't stupid enough to rely on one dime of this ponzi scheme and, unlike them, actually made other plans.

Then I'll rub it in.

[csmusaret]

That is exactly what will happen. Twenty, thirty years from now our gov't will be so overwhelmed by all the promises it has made over many years, it will have no other choice. It will print trillions of new dollars and so inflate our currency they will be able to wipe out their debts with worthless money. It is coming and you can thank Republicans and Democrats. Once elected they are all the same. They promise our tax dollars for whatever program they think will get them re-elected.

[whitedog57]

Social Security was always meant as a tax transfer scheme. When the tax revenues are less the transfer, the system winds down. Simple.

The problem is that politicians (Democrats for the most part, but many Republicans as well) pretend that the tax revenue < transer payments never occurs.

What will happen? A return to America prior to Roosevelt's programs. This isn't necessarily bad, but it will mean that people will have to adjust their expectations.

[Liberty Valance]

Me estas picando los ojos.

[Mulder]

Won't see an F'ing dime.

You'll see it. It just won't be worth anything due to currency depreciation.

[11th_VA]

55 and older ... - the bulge in the population that helped create Social Security's predicament in the first place.

When I read this today I about blew up - BS - the predicament was made by Congress that threw away the money in SS ...

[Mulder]

A return to America prior to Roosevelt's programs. This isn't necessarily bad, but it will mean that people will have to adjust their expectations

This is a radically different country today.

This time around, there will either be a push for a strongman to fix everything; or a push to join with other countries (Mexico) to "share the burden".

[gcruse]

. Work until you drop.

I was prepared to.  But age discrimination coupled with low unemployment meant there were no jobs.  I wonder how they will fix that?  As for me, I just pole-vaulted into retirement.  Those without strong IRAs may not have that option.