Social Security is a viable plan except for the fact that the government borrows the money ... goes into debt and awards benefits to those that barely participated.
It's like Illinois and the lottery. All they had to do was collect the money, give half to the winner and keep the rest. They couldn't even do that straight.
Social Security is a G'ment run Ponzi scheme.
Not being able to acknowledge this simple fact is one example of - wait for it - When does the individual take personal responsibility for themselves.
Not so. SS is not sustainable on an actuarial basis. It is a pay as you go system that depends on today's workers to pay for today's retirees. In 1950 there were 16 workers for every retiree; today, it is less than 3 workers; and by 2030 it will be two.
The way the system works is that the SS contributions are held in the SS Trust Fund in non-market, interest bearing T-bills. The current $2.3 trillion in the SSTF is an unfunded liability in much the same way as the T-bills held by the Chinese, Japanese, other federal pension programs, etc. It is part of almost $20 trillion national debt.
SS has been running in the red since 2010 and will continue to do so until the Trust Funds are exhausted in 2033. The Trust Funds are used to make up the shortfall between revenue and benefits paid out, i.e, the SS T-bills are redeemed by the General Fund so the SSA can pay benefits. In order to make SS solvent, we will need to increase taxes or decrease benefits or some combination thereof. We did something similar in 1983 when Reagan and Tip O'Neill struck a Faustian bargain to keep SS solvent for the next 75 years. It didn't work.
Fundamentally social security is a Ponzi scheme.
Todays workers’ payments fund todays retirees, tomorrows workers will fund the retirement of todays workers.
Like a Ponzi scheme if the numbers of those paying in (workers) is significantly higher then those receiving payments (retirees) the system functions. However labor & retirement demographics aren’t constant!(Why would anyone rational think they would be?) Plus Congress (Rats & cowardly ‘me too’ GOP’ers) added recipients to it that never paid a dime in. People take way more out then they pay in. Google “Ida Mae Fuller” (1st SS recipient - she was in all the newsreels!), look at what she paid in versus what she took out. There have been tens of thousands of Ida Mae Fullers! I saw this figure in 1980 (Therefore I am sure now its worse!), if you live more then seven years past retirement. You are now taking out more then you put in. (These numbers are based on the “average person” who or whatever that is!) Also like all Ponzi schemes the first ones in come out with roses, the later & last ones in get it in the shorts!
Also you have no property rights in the money you put in. Past USSC decisions explicitly state that. So the notion “the money” you put in is “there and yours” is completely laughable! It was there and out the door to the crop of retirees that existed while you were working.
It has always been that way, it was deliberately set up that way by FDR’s buds in spite of warnings by the financial industry that it would eventually fail. It was set up to make generations dependent on future Rat politicians. I guess given how many people believe it “works” and the numbers dependent on it. I guess they succeeded in some sense.