Posted on 08/15/2018 9:20:43 AM PDT by Kaslin
Social Security is running out of money.
You may not believe that, but it's a fact.
That FICA money taken from your paycheck was not saved for you in a "trust fund." Politicians misled us. They spent every penny the moment it came in.
This started as soon as they created Social Security. They assumed that FICA payments from young workers would cover the cost of sending checks to older people. After all, at the time, most Americans died before they reached 65.
Now, however, people keep living longer. There just aren't enough young people to cover my Social Security checks.
So Social Security is going broke. This year, the program went into the red for the first time.
Presidents routinely promise to fix this problem.
George W. Bush said he'd "strengthen and save" Social Security. Barack Obama said he'd "safeguard" it, and Donald Trump said that he'll "save" it.
But none has done anything to save it.
"There is a plan out there to save it, but it requires some tough choices," says Heritage Foundation budget analyst Romina Boccia.
Heritage proposes cutting payments to rich people and raising the retirement age to 70.
Good luck with that. Seniors vote. Most vote against politicians who suggest cutting benefits.
This summer, interviewing people for my new video about Social Security's coming bankruptcy, was the first time I had heard the majority of such a group say they were aware there is a problem. One said, "We're already at a trillion dollars (deficit) ... (I)t's almost like a big Ponzi scheme."
Actually, more like a pyramid scheme. Ponzi schemes secretly take your money. But the Social Security trick is written into the law -- there for anyone who bothers to look.
Social Security isn't the only hard choice ahead of us. Medicare will run out of money in just eight years. At that point, benefits will automatically be cut. Social Security hits its wall in 15 years.
Amazingly, as we approach this disaster, Democrats say -- spend even more.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., proudly announced, "Nearly every Democrat in the United States Senate has voted in favor of expanding Social Security."
How would they pay for it? "Raise taxes on the wealthy!" is the usual answer.
I tried that on Boccia: "Just raise taxes on the rich!"
"There isn't enough money, even that the rich would have," she countered, "to pay for the $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities."
One partial solution proposed by Heritage and others is to let younger workers put some of their Social Security money into their own personal retirement accounts.
"Imagine being able to own and control your own retirement dollars," urged Boccia, with genuine excitement. "You could invest it in businesses, grow the economy, whatever rocks your boat."
If history is any guide, private accounts would almost certainly pay retirees more than Social Security will ever pay.
"Even a conservative portfolio of stocks and bonds that got you about a 5 percent annual return, you would make many times more," said Boccia.
She's right. Money in government hands just sits there or gets spent wastefully; it's rarely invested wisely.
Private accounts have been tried in a few countries. In Chile, the investment they created helped make Chile the richest country in Latin America. (Before, Chile was poorer than most.)
Yet even after that success, leftists in South America hold street protests against private accounts. They're angry because capitalists get a slice of the pie.
I told Boccia that I couldn't understand why people in Chile don't loudly cheer private accounts because of the wealth they'd created.
"We lack gratitude," she replied, "for what the free market provides. That is difficult to wrap your head around. It's easy to think, 'Here is the government. This is where I go.'"
But eventually, even governments run out of other people's money.
Like most American politicians, Donald Trump campaigned saying, "I'm not going to cut Social Security ... not going to cut Medicare."
He and other politicians pretend they're protecting people's futures, but they are not. They're ignoring the inevitable.
Better to fix old-age programs now -- rather than have them suddenly go bankrupt later.
Obesity will save both social security and medicare.
Obesity is a governor, a damper, on prosperity
These ‘social security fails’ articles are about as ridiculous as the ‘climate change’ fear articles.
Claims that Social Security has been running out of money have been going on since I was in high school — 50 years ago.
It is a political football. It is sort of like the Race Card. It elicits anger and keeps ‘journalists’ in business writing articles about how it is running out of money.
Then, as if almost miraculous, Congress finds a way to save the system and kick the can down the road — again.
Remember President George W. Bush wanted to give the people the choice to voluntarily get social security. He was ridiculed by the left and by some on the right.
I believe that Trump might attempt something--a semi-private solution--but it will be only in his second term. We won't be able to wait much longer than that...
Levy a $.01 fee on all HF trading transactions on Wall St. Problem solved.
“Social Security hits its wall in 15 years.”
Which is the year I’ll turn 67. nice
Ponzi scheme , pyramid scheme nothing but a political scheme for stealing.
My late brother-in-law married a Chinese woman whose mother moved from China and collected SS despite never having worked in the US. No wonder it’s going broke.
If they raise the retirement age to 70, many older people will have to remain employed, regardless of their health issues. At present, as it is, my son in law who was born in 1960, will have to work until 68 to reach full retirement benefits on SSAN. He has a good job and is quite happy with the situation at present, and has no health issues to date. One of the lucky ones. Maybe ALL those on social security (undocumented aliens and their children for instance, who have never paid in) need to be removed from social security and offered free transport home to their country of origin.
Either eliminate the program or clean it up and return it to its original function as a retirement safety net for those who have contributed to it.
It was not structured to be used as a welfare program.
Stop using Sosicla Security to redistribute wealth to illegals, moochers and liberal Special Victim groups and the program will no longer be in financial straits.
I once sat down (for almost three days)and computed how much I would have had from my FICA taxes if it had been invested from 1967 to 2015. I took out the 5 years from the service AND the 7 years I was a cop. I compared the amount for each year X the S&P 500 yearly rise/ drop. If this investment would have been made, I could have retired with 2.5 m8llion profit for my retirement fund.
It’s easy to fix. As a start, stop sending SS checks to folks like Mitt Romney and Michael Bloomberg.
Raise Social Security benefits and cut FICA taxes to accelerate the bankruptcy of the program. Probably any politician who ran on a platform of raising benefits and cutting FICA taxes would be elected.
Another way to do it would be to exempt young people from the program, say everyone born after 2000 would no longer have to pay the tax and would not be eligible for benefits.
It is almost funny to see Republican politicians talking as if FDR's socialist scheme is sacred.
SOCIAL SECURITY TAKINGS CLAUSE
Stossle is economically illiterate.
Stossle can stuff it.
Stossle should learn the Constitution.
The takings clause of the Constitution says retirees are entitled to just compensation of their Social Security takings, plus investment small cap loss at the 11% rate.
This is unique to Social Security because property was taken, unlike Welfare, unlike Medicaid and unlike EBT, & Section 8.
Stossle is Fake News.
1. They will have to take the “cap” off the Social Security Deduction like they did with Medicare.
2. Raise the Benefit Age. Add one Month per year, making the supposed “full benefit” from Age 67 to 70 over the next 36 Years.
3. Do the same for “early” Benefits, raising the Benefit Age from 62 to 65 over the next 36 Years. (It isn’t an accident that they failed to do that the last time they reformed Social Security back in the 80’s).
4. Do the same for Medicare Eligibility slowly raising the Eligibility Age from 65 to 70 over the next 60 Years.
5. Take all that Money out of the General Fund and put in in a Lockbox. (I just had to add that for yucks)
Doesn’t matter, we will end up with Medicare for All if the Rats get back in charge. That cost will dwarf everything.
When I applied for Social Security I didn’t get my first Payment until two Months after my Birthday. Late July Birthday, received my first Payment the 4th Wednesday in September.
With Medicare, I switched over on the first day of my Birthday Month. I assume they could save a few bucks just delaying that to the beginning of the following Month after turning 65 without anyone going ballistic.
Every penny counts...
Well, that is the Social Security’s fault, but they don’t care. It’s not their money. If they had to pay it out of their own pocket it would change.
The Social Security system takes in about $800 billion/year of tax revenue.
Therefore, the Social Security system can pay out about $800 billion/year of benefits yearly even after the Old Age Trust Fund is completely exhausted.
People could and probably did tell Charles Ponzi to go to hell, but Uncle Sam insists on FICA and self-employment tax payment under penalty of law.
Will benefits have to be cut in the future? Almost without a doubt, and probably by about 20%.
Most likely the full/early retirement ages will be increased by about one year every decade too.
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