Posted on 10/19/2016 11:09:59 AM PDT by MaxistheBest
The typical retiree's monthly Social Security check will get only $3.92 bigger next year.
That amounts to an increase of just 0.3% -- the smallest ever put in place to help cover higher prices.
That's still an improvement from this year, when the lack of inflation kept benefits from increasing at all. The average retiree's monthly benefit is currently $1,305.30.
"Over the last five years, Social Security COLA's have remained small or nonexistent," said AARP. "Every cent can matter to beneficiaries and their families. After last year's zero COLA, this year's announcement doesn't offer much help to the millions of families who depend on their Social Security benefits."
Retirees also spend a bigger proportion of their money on health care, for which prices have risen faster than overall inflation.
"As prescription prices skyrocket and Medicare premiums and other health costs increase, many older Americans have understandable concerns," said AARP.
At the same time, retirees are hurt by low interest rates because many depend on savings to cover at least part of their living expenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Please explain how my post would lead you to insulting me. What did I say that leads you to the conclusion I am a socialist?
Good analysis but it all leads back to this simple statement: today’s benefits are paid from today’s taxes. Any benefit paid to day must be funded by the taxes that are extracted today or funds that are borrowed and might be repaid by future taxes.
If SS has money what and where is it? US Treasury Bonds are not money. They can be redeemed for money if you can force people to give up their own money to pay for the redemption. You cannot run out of something you don’t have.
Amd the best part is that these so called bonds are redeemable for US dollars which are themselves are another form of debt and can be issued in unlimited amounts.
You support takings.
You see that somewhere in my post? Please tell me where.
Dolt. Ah! Name calling the favorite tactic of the left.
You call government imposed taxes “contributions”. You carry on about how they could have been invested and how much they could yield as if SS is just mismanaged.
It is not mismanaged or a ripoff. It is performing as designed. Do you understand what it was designed to do? I think SS is a rip roaring success based on its intended goal.
That's true, as long as you qualify it properly.
The federal government collects most revenue from two different types of taxes: payroll taxes and income taxes.
Social Security is funded solely by the payroll tax. During the period that payroll taxes were higher than benefits, the excess was invested in special obligation Treasury bonds (as specified in the original law).
The net effect was the federal government borrowed from Social Security to finance the deficit, instead of borrowing from buyers of US Treasury bonds. This is where some "accounting fiction" comes in, because borrowing from Social Security doesn't add to the official US government debt.
But, like the redemption of US Treasury Bonds, the redemption of these special obligation bonds comes from the general fund. So, it's either paid by income taxes, or by purchases of additional US Treasury bonds.
As you wrote: it's all taxes. But the source of taxes is important, because it determines who pays it. And, once the Trust Fund is empty, the source becomes even more important.
Social Security cannot borrow money. So, if nothing is done between now and about 2034, benefits will be reduced -- by law -- to what can be sustained by incoming payroll taxes. At the moment, that's estimated to be a 20% reduction.
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OK maybe you are more mendacious than a dolt.
But you are still a socialist.
Social security is way beyond mismanaged; it is a total Ponzi scheme. Whether it is functioning as designed begs the question of the motivation of its creators.
Your belief that it is a success is solid proof of your socialist heart.
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What was it designed to do? What was the motivation of its creators? If you perceive the motivation in its creation as I do you might also agree that it has been successful.
Anyone who believes that SS is mismanaged or simply a Ponzi scheme has the socialistic heart. You believe the at the problem with SS is that it is a ripoff and that it is mismanaged? What we need is just better government management?
By your analysis, and it is very good, SS will not run out of money. I say that is so because it is fed at an endless trough of government taxes, borrowings, or fiat currency. The system you describe is the 3 card monte played to hide the fact that is a simple tax and spend welfare scheme designed to generate dependency on the generosity of the Democratic Party.
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You are ranting nonsense.
SS is a ponzi scheme, and socialists like you love it.
Top down takings like SS have no place in a free representative republic.
Pass the bread and circus tickets.
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you pay this, we will do that ( provide health care when you're older, pay you a pension, fix roads, defend the country etc.)
before the income tax and SS were started, immigrants could come to this country and work...
after those taxes were imposed, WE GOT SKIN IN THE GAME....
this last century the new immigrants have NO SKIN IN THE GAME and they're stealing OUR money and OUR healthcare and OUR security...
Geesh. Even my lousy 2% raise is more than that!
If she snags some of my 401(k) to invest in treasuries, I will accidentally stop contributing money to it and spend it on paying down my mortgage early, heh-heh.
either that or its robbing banks...
however, this govt has taken massive amt of money from the younger boomers...
this govt has a 0% interest rate on our savings (thru the banks)
this govt has allowed companies to do away with defined pensions while leaving the govt workers fully intact and growing...
so what the heck do you think we can do out here on a $3.92 raise a month?....
we're broke...and getting broker..
this is a good time to remind all you vets out there...even if in for a only a couple of years....to get on with the Va....they’re very picky but even get the prescription coverage would help a lot...
So what top down takings do have have a place in a representative republic? What is a top down taking?
Have you figured out yet what the purpose of SS is? Once you understand what SS is designed to do you will comprehend how successful it has been.
You are getting close when you call it a scheme. What is the scheme that is being pulled by SS? Has that scheme been successful?
Keep up the name calling.
If that's all that you got out of it, you didn't read what I wrote.
No, Social Security won't run out of money. But, the amount of money it receives (from all sources) will be reduced substantially -- and it will occur sooner than most people realize. Even worse, very few are prepared for what will happen when that occurs.
Without changes via legislation, Social Security will exhaust the Trust Fund around 2034, resulting in a 20% benefit cut.
There really isn't much that can be done, absent an immediate increase in payroll taxes -- to about 15% combined employer and employee rate (up from 12.4%).
If we wait until 2034, then a 16% combined payroll tax rate would be required.
Politically, a benefit cut is impossible. There have been some proposals to further means-test benefits (which are already means-tested... most don't realize it), but the proposed thresholds won't make much difference. The proposed thresholds would have to be drastically lowered, affecting most middle income retirees.
I got it. You agree. SS will not run out of money. It cannot so long as politicians see fit to fund it and as you say cutting benefits is impossible so it will be funded. Trust funds, bonds, transfers, it doesn’t matter. The math is simple today’s handouts are funded by taxes collected today. It is a political calculus as to what the level of benefits are and how high taxes are.
The fiction of trust funds is a simple ploy to dupe people into believing they making contributions that are somehow morphed into deposits that are securely invested in US bonds.
The way future welfare payments are will be made is by taxing future income. The only limiting factor is the willingess to pay of those being taxed. But men with guns is a compelling enough reason for most n
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SS has been “successful” at funneling worker and employer contributions to just about everything but their intended purpose.
SS is massive crime in high places.
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