Posted on 03/09/2020 9:49:19 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
As you may have heard, our nation's most successful social program is in a bit of a bind.
Every year since 1982, the Social Security program has generated a net cash surplus. By bringing in more revenue than is paid out in benefits each year, the program has been able to build up a $2.9 trillion reserve. However, according to the 2019 report from the Social Security Board of Trustees, the program is about to hit an unwanted inflection point.
You see, more than a half-dozen ongoing demographic changes are expected to result in Social Security expending more than it collects in 2020. While this initial net cash outflow will be relatively small, the amount flowing out of the program will increase exponentially in subsequent years. By 2035, Social Security's asset reserves of $2.9 trillion are forecast to be completely exhausted.....
The problem is that Social Security finds itself in a Catch-22. The "Catch-22" phrase describes a dilemma that offers no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions. In Social Security's case, no matter what unilateral proposal is made to resolve the program's cash shortfall over the long term (defined as the next 75 years), benefit cuts for retired workers seem to be a given.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Absolutely the best solution. Even with democrat scare tactics trying to crash the economy, we'd be far, far, far better off with our SS contributions invested privately. Even the lowly bank account is a better option than dot-gov.
The coronavirus will enhance the financial stability of the SS “Trust Fund” (which is a complete misnomer, as there’s precious little trust, and no fund). It very disproportionately hits the elderly.
“Military disability is, in far too many cases “free money for nothing” and deserves a review, but probably wont ever get it.”
You forgot to mention Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) where we can get both VA disability and CRSC. I haven’t applied yet but am considering it.
The first thing to go will be the maximum taxable earnings limit, followed by income eligibility.
They always start with tax the rich.
They may also decide to police disability fraud more effectively, but that is small potatoes in the big picture.
To be fair, SS has always been a Ponzi scheme.
Here is how this would work in the real world. I get $10 and intend to save ten percent for my eventual retirement. So I put nine dollars in my right pocket to spend and one dollar in my left pocket to save. After I spend the nine dollars, I see something more I want to buy, so I "loan" my right pocket one dollar from my left pocket, replacing it with a one dollar IOU. Since I get to write the laws concerning inter-pocket transfers, I declare this one dollar IOU an "asset." After all, I owe it to myself, so everything is cool. I do this with every $10 I earn over my working lifetime.
When I retire, I of course have no way to repay the stash of IOU's in my left pocket. This is a problem because this stash of IOU's is my retirement "savings." Fortunately, there is an easy answer to this. I declare the pile of IOU's in my left pocket to be a "trust fund" and a "sacred intergenerational compact." I then hand it off to my children and grandchildren and tell them that they are obligated to pay it. This is how Social Security is funded.
They work with me. It’s always best to get disabilities that can’t be proven, like hearing loss, headaches, PTSD, backaches, tinnitus, etc.
They can do everything I do and hear fine.
Ummmm, the Wuhan kills seniors... stops their social security checks... forever.
“Wouldn’t that entitle the higher paid workers to increased benefits?”
Yes it would and I did state that.
Ideally there should be privatized retirement accounts replacing SS.
The only “successful” thing about Social Security is that it created a massive slush fund for the Federal Government. When the Ponzi Scheme inevitably fails people will question the reasoning of the critters who passed it. Any proposal to keep it afloat should be treated as criminal.
It’s optional. You don’t have to participate.
You misread me. I called for continued collection of FICA taxes. No one is exempted from that. Said so twice.
Yes, I could save Social Security immediately by raising the retirement age to 100. They don’t say what people who are laid off in their late fifties and can’t find another job will do. Go on welfare?
Yes I did, read it too quickly!
“You mean just like military get their retirement reduced if they also get VA disability but other federal retirees get full retirement plus any VA disability?”
Meanwhile convicted felon jesse jackson jr. collects $8,000/month in federal disability. daddy jackson made sure he checked into a hospital long enough to qualify. poor guy is bipolar don’t ya know?
I'm 55, and you will color me quite shocked if I ever receive so much as a thin dime from it. Never have planned to get any. Don't particularly intend to "retire" as such anyway. "Social Security" has always been nothing but another tax that is essentially a welfare-like wealth transfer from the young to the old.
If I could have opted out of it, I would have.
Then we hunt the Bastards down and kill them.
I know of an individual with 100% disability after a career in.....a military band
What would be the point, then? Wouldn't that simply be like adding more people to the program; a program that is not solvent?
I have researched Social Security extensively because a buddy of mine from the Army who retired about the time I did got a job with them.
The reason it was not written so any surplus went into the stock market was two-fold. 1)no one trusted the stock market at the time because of the 1929 crash (social security was adopted in 1935), 2)they were also worried that dumping that much money into the stock market would make cause serious problems. Like the government becoming the owner of most companies.
Also it is not unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has ruled it is, in essences, a tax, and therefore constitutional under the 16th Amendment.
I personally have come to believe it is a good program and necessary in an industrial society. I look at it like the military, where it protects us from enemies abroad and helps with disasters at home. Social Security provides us protection in our old age and disability. Would have rather seen it created through a constitutional amendment though.
In one way it’s better than the military. Every American gets the services of the military, even if they’ve never paid one red cent in taxes. The only way you can draw anything from social security is if you, your spouse, or your parent paid in.
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