Posted on 04/12/2010 1:10:18 PM PDT by Lorianne
we boomers have a lot to be worried about because most of us plan to retire in a few years and Social Security and Medicare are on the way to going bust. I should know because I used to be a trustee of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Those of you who are younger than we early boomers have even more to be worried about because if those funds go bust they won’t be there when you’re ready to retire.
It’s already starting to happen. This year Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes. The tipping point came sooner than anyone expected because the recession has kicked so many people off payrolls. But it was coming anyway. And it adds new urgency to reforming Social Security — a task the president’s commission on the nation’s debt is focusing on.
So what’s the answer?
Fed Chair Ben Bernanke this week listed the choices. “To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits,” he said in a speech on Wednesday, “the nation must choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above.”
Bernanke is almost certainly right about “some combination,” but he leaves out one other possible remedy that should be included in that combination: Immigration.
You see, the biggest reason Social Security is in trouble, and Medicare as well, is because America is aging so fast. It’s not just that so many boomers are retiring. It’s also that seniors are living longer. And families are having fewer children.
Add it all up and the number of people who are working relative to the number who are retired keeps shrinking.
Forty years ago there were five workers for every retiree. Now there are three. Within a couple of decades, there will be only two workers per retiree. There’s no way just two workers will be able or willing to pay enough payroll taxes to keep benefits flowing to every retiree.
This is where immigration comes in. Most immigrants are young because the impoverished countries they come from are demographically the opposite of rich countries. Rather than aging populations, their populations are bursting with young people.
Yes, I know: There aren’t enough jobs right now even for Americans who want and need them. But once the American economy recovers, there will be. Take a long-term view and most new immigrants to the U.S. will be working for many decades.
Get it? One logical way to deal with the crisis of funding Social Security and Medicare is to have more workers per retiree, and the simplest way to do that is to allow more immigrants into the United States.
Immigration reform and entitlement reform have a lot to do with one another.
IT'S ALL ABOUT US
I would hope not. The case is exceedingly stupid. Replacing professionals paying 30%+ of their incomes into the system with unskilled manual laborers taking out of the system isn’t a solution that passes the math test. Europe has already tried it. It isn’t working.
Of course, immigration in a scale that would offset Social Security and Medicare shortfalls would lead to massive housing inflation and higher governmental costs to educate the kids of those immigrants, both of which would jack up property taxes well beyond the budget of most seniors, but don't let the details get in the way.
too bad we can’t go back and unabort all those kids that have been killed since Roe v Wade...I bet they’d be helpful as taxpayers to fund the Ponzi schemes known as Social Security and Medicare...
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Après Moi le Deluge!
It would just keep the Ponzi scheme going for another generation, at which point it would collapse even more devastatingly.
RRRRReichhhhh demonstrates once again that he’s just a moronic little troll.
exactly ... but as long as I get mine ... who cares?
Will never see a cent of the 125,000 that I have put in SS. The gov. will seize my IRA’s and 401K’s in the name of “Social Justice”. Thats what
Pelosi wants.
This is how boomers think... how can I scam people. Everyone is just here to benefit me.
The rag has the word “Progressive” in it.
Move on. Nothing further to know or bother reading.
Robert Ryesssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh is full of crap. All 2 feet of him.
We need a slave class.
We need someone to pull the cart.
Isn’t this “racist”?
Probably not when libs argue it.
Will somebody tell the Lollipop Guild’s spokesman that if they consume more than they put in to the system, adding immigrants only makes the problem worse.
Why would they want to come here? All freedoms are lost and the government has everything like where they are at. Wages will be equal to there’s and this admin has turn out the shining light on the hill.
Why would they come - there are more freedoms and less taxes in russia.
Yeah it has worked real well in California. MexiFornia is so broke it is almost beyond comprehension.
“Will never see a cent of the 125,000 that I have put in SS. The gov. will seize my IRA’s and 401K’s in the name of “Social Justice”. Thats what Pelosi wants.”
- Oh but they will give you IOUs for your hard earned 401K. We see how well that worked in California.
Sounds racist to me ... but hey, as long as BOOMERS get theirs, the ends justify the means.
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