Posted on 01/21/2018 9:46:42 AM PST by Kaslin
Social Security is, barring an immediate and massive overhaul in how benefits are paid to the back-end of the Baby Boomer generation and beyond, on its deathbed. There can be no mistaking that fact.
Veronique de Rugy explains at Reason:
Since 2010, [Social Security] has been running at a cash-flow deficit meaning that the Social Security payroll taxes the government collects aren't enough to cover the benefits it's obliged to pay out. That should have been a signal that the time had come to look at reform.
Instead, we've spent the last seven years ignoring the problem. To get by, the program started tapping into assets set aside beginning in the 1980s for rainy days. Prior to 2010, the program collected more in payroll taxes than was needed to collect benefits at the time. The leftovers were "invested" in Treasury bonds through the Old-Age Trust Fund, which is now being drawn down.
The 2010 mark for this cash-flow deficit didn't occur willy-nilly. It could be argued that our government hastened, or at the very least exacerbated, this cash-flow deficit with its "payroll tax holiday," a bipartisan effort instituted in late 2009 that persisted until 2013. This political maneuver slashed payroll taxes by roughly one third, from 6.2% to 4.2%. The uncollected 2% (not peanuts in a country the size of ours) happens to coincide with the moment in time in which the government's payroll tax receipts couldn't cover its Social Security liabilities. The cost of this "payroll tax holiday" is estimated to be $240 billion in tax revenue, some of which, at least, would have otherwise gone to pay out Social Security's beneficiaries. Much of this $240 billion in uncollected revenue necessarily became issued federal debt.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
So you wish to transform the world's biggest Ponzi scheme into the world's biggest welfare system? Sounds like a bad plan to me.
I see plenty of people my age, post-retirement, that enjoyed spending more than their income for decades while I put money aside. Now you want to reward that behavior?
I fully support decreasing Social Security payments by any percentage you would care to name; even 100%. I do not support rewarding those who frittered their money away while I sacrificed in order to take care of myself.
It does not have to be settled amicably but it could be and should be.
Supporting everyone has got to stop. Barky just replaced welfare with permanent SS disability. NObody wants to say how much this is contributing to insolvency.
I am for IRAs as i stated. The truth is not everyone will do what the law requires. They never do.
So then we have choice. Tell them tough crap or give them something after means tests. That something may include taking away the house but it would be very basic and just above living on the street.
“That something may include taking away the house but it would be very basic and just above living on the street.”
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So everyone would have their houses in trusts.
.
No, the problem with a private SS replacement plan is that Govt is inept at all they do. 401k is a surprize exception.
you’re making this way too complicated and you generalize. if you want government welfare and own a house the government should be able to pt alien on your house.
Not every poor senior who needs help, will own a house.
NO everyone’s house is not in a trust. nor would it have to be.
Re: “It is considered a contract.”
It may be a “political” contract, but Social Security and Medicare are absolutely not “legal” contracts.
Congress, with the president’s signature, can terminate both of those programs any time they want to.
LOL. You are 50 years too late for that.
Social Security Quick Calculator
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc
My example. If you figure 66 and a half which I could do I would lose about $90/month if wait 6 months. If 70 then that is $500/month more. I am lucky I have some stock so my retirement should not be a worry about money.
Retirement
Your estimated monthly benefit amount, beginning at age 67 in 2025, is $1,800.00
Your estimated monthly benefit amount, beginning at age 66 and 6 months in 2024, is $1,711.00
Your estimated monthly benefit amount, beginning at age 70 in 2028, is $2,302.00
Oh yeah! I forgot! Thanks for the link.
When I was a young man, my grandfather warned me about the government programs like the 401K and IRA.
He said that the government will consider that money “theirs”, and that one of these days they will go after it.
Now,i have a 401K, an IRA, and some other investments. I keep seeing rumblings that those accounts will be seized to fund SSI. One of these days,they will be.
Why do they have to pay you the money you paid for 50 years? It's not your money. Do you also want to be refunded all the other taxes you've paid as well. I suspect it has all been spent.
Can I imagine it? I've seen it every time there is a thread about the federal taxing scheme commonly called "social security".
Indeed. The other side is that because no one has any actual individual interest in social security payments, all the poor sucker who worked and paid in all their lives, then dropped dead at 60 would get nothing at all. At least as originally conceived. That was one of the things that made it a variant of the classic 'ponzi' scheme. Of course, over the years they've added so many additional classes of 'beneficiaries' of the scheme, that demand has far outstripped supply.
Wrong. See Fleming v Nestor.
Yup. Thanks for providing the case. I couldn't think of the name. The entire program has been a giant scam that both democrats and republicans have bought into so much they don't even have any concept of how badly they've been flim-flammed.
Yes there have been several federal court decision establishing that you no property rights in you social security contributions.
It may not have been a contract, but it was a promise. I involuntarily paid into Social Security, BUT for paying into Social Security, I was promised a retirement fund when I retired. I realize that our Government has no conscience, but they should have made it a voluntary contribution if they were going to welch on their promise. And it pains me to read/hear so many people on this board, who delight in the fact that I am angry about the situation.
I think you're reading it wrong. We're not 'delighting in the fact you are angry'. We're incredulous that you could actually have for one second believed a "promise" from the government. It is certainly no new revelation that they lied about it. I've been laughing at people's childish faith in 'social security' for 30 years.
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