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