As I wrote earlier, the only obligation is political.
Almost every dollar that was collected from you was paid to your parents and grandparents. A small percentage went into the Trust Fund, but if you are still contributing -- even that's no longer happening. Social Security officially started spending more money than it takes in back in 2010, and last year they started withdrawing more from the Trust Fund than it earns in interest.
The only "promise of a later return" that you have is that a younger generation will be taxed to do the same for you.
Ever looked at your own Social Security statement? Have you ever noticed that they don't even tell you how much taxes have been paid on your behalf? All they tell you is how much wages were taxed. That should be a clue that there's no balance out there waiting for you.
But, here's the real problem. Go look at the Social Security Trustee's report for 2015. Starting at the bottom of page 5, they lay it out in stark black and white.
Unless the law is immediately changed to increase payroll taxes by 21%, reduce benefits for EVERYONE by 16%, or some combination thereof, Social Security will not have enough revenue to pay benefits through 2090.
If nothing is done, the shortfall will occur about 2034. And if that happens, benefits will be cut by about 23%. Social Security has no choice: they can't print money.
We are way past the point of be able to do anything small to "tweak" benefits or taxes. We lost that opportunity about 20 years ago. And now, it's going to be painful -- and gets worse every day.
No...the obligation is not political. It is a matter of honor. I’m sorry if I’m old school and tell you that I’m going to do something and then don’t follow thru it is wrong. This is the Federal Government...not some scam artist that I allow to take money from my check.
Do I think SS was Constitutional? No I don’t. Do I think there need to be reforms. Of course I do. I actually think the program needs to be gradually phased out.
If a private company raided pension funds...they would be sitting in prison. Would they not?
“The only “promise of a later return” that you have is that a younger generation will be taxed to do the same for you.”
Thank you! I have rarely seen Social Security described as what it truly was established to be; which is a “pay it forward program to insure that the elderly and disabled would be sheltered if they had no other means of support when they became unable to work. It was an honorable concept on it’s face and still is to some extent. But no one seems to remember the premise of paying into a program to benefit the elderly while trusting in the hope that your own children and grandchildren will do the same for you. What once was a noble concept is now pretty much labeled “ponzie scheme” because of it’s mandatory “tax” if you will, to fund what once was the responsibility of families and; in instances where there was no family, the State.
It’s true that it’s turned into an unmanageable monster that must be whittled down. It got that way by politicians selling bigger and bigger benefits for votes and the American public lapping them up. But those who want to abolish it had better know what they are abolishing. They should get ready to go and collect their aging relatives, bring them home and prepare to care for them with their own funds until they die. It’s been done before by generations of Americans as a matter of morals and honor in caring for one’s own. I don’t see that kind of thing going over big in this day and time. With the sinister appearance of such things as “death panels” deciding what happens to the elderly; I’m afraid our present order of things would come up with a much more expedient way of whittling down the Social Security problem.