As a Gen Xer who has argued with Boomers for years and years about Social Security reform to no avail, all I have to say is:
Posted on 01/26/2022 6:11:07 AM PST by EBH
OUTSIDE THE BOX CORRECTION: Social Security would need to cut benefits across the board by 22% when it hits insolvency in 2034, according to the latest trustees report. An earlier version gave it as 24%. There was no error in the table.
There is one fact about Social Security on which all policy analysts agree: the longer Congress waits, the harder it will be to fix the program’s finances.
The extension of that axiom is: every dollar of delay today costs future Americans — whether workers or retirees — more than a dollar to fix. Over the past two years, Social Security has collected less than $2 trillion and generated about $6 trillion of unfunded liabilities. In other words, for every dollar of revenue that the program has collected since 2018, it created $3 of promises that no one expects will be kept.
The only material question remaining is for whom this bell tolls. In the words of Donne, it tolls for thee. We are the people over whom so many hands have been wrung over the past few decades as Congress has pursued a path of wait-and-see politics.
Americans have heard for decades that Social Security might not be there for them when they retire. While that cliché has loomed over Americans almost since inception, its meaning has evolved as time has passed. In 1984, Social Security benefits were generally at risk for barely born millennials. By 2005, people who are part of Generation X were likely to experience a disruption of benefits in retirement. Now, almost every baby boomer expects to outlive the system’s ability to pay scheduled benefits — and that assumes that the economy cooperates.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Just rename it. Stop calling it Social Security and call it Welfare. Welfare is never about to run out of money.
Oh, you’ve done it now.
Wait for all of the old folks to scream: “That’s my money.”
They don’t realize their money is gone very early into the process.
The virus / vax can solve this and as a bonus fix man made global warming at the same time.
And how much of what we, the working American citizens, put into Social Security has been STOLEN by illegals and drugged up bums getting SSI?
The point is that once we let people quit putting money into it, we'll quit being on the hook to pay them more than they put into it. Especially while the SS fund by law can invest the money into only one thing: U.S. treasuries. Thus, the SS fund can't make its money grow nearly fast enough. I'm proposing short term pain (tax money paying current and near future SS recipients) to remove the long term bigger pain (having the SS system go on forever and ever making the SS burden even more than it is now).
At least that's my two cents' worth.
Many things with convoluted, high fallutin’ names and descriptions and polices and procedures can be massively simplified to see through the word salads and other dazzling BS.
In a nutshell, the kids' game of "kick the can" is coming to its well-known conclusion. Or maybe "musical chairs.: But it is a simple problem in the end.
Someone always loses. Failure is an option.
The rats stole from the pot and left an IOU
All they really need to do is find all the people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security and they could extend that by quite a few years. Illegals, fake medical benefits, etc.
But that is their voter base and will not happen until someone totally dismantles the system.
As a Gen Xer who has argued with Boomers for years and years about Social Security reform to no avail, all I have to say is:
Opt out of SS contributions and into a spectrum of IRA, 401(k), and other personally owned savings vehicles would allow people to retire comfortably with their own money.
Add a provision that it would be perfectly legal for anyone in this program to shoot any congress critter who introduced or voted for a law that would tax or rob those funds (*cough* J. B. introduced legislation to tax SS, and later was the deciding vote to increase those taxes *cough*)...
IIRC, it was JFK who started the "borrowing" from SS.
Nobody's perfect...
Not to worry Gen Xer, you will get back every penny you ever put into SS.
Of course a Happy Meal at your favorite restaurant will cost $3,000.00, but you’ll get every penny...
This is an Real Easy Fix:
Make ALL Taxpayer Funded Retirement programs ILLEGAL Nationwide, Liquidate ALL Public Pension Funds and turn it over to Social Security,. Dump EVERY Public Employee Nationwide into Social Security.
“I say let people opt out of it.”
What about the the matching pay made by the employer? Even though the employer pays, it is from your pay (labor).
More people said the UFOs were more credible.
Recently the government has been pushing the idea of UAPs/UFOs. Coincidence?
"What about the the matching pay made by the employer? Even though the employer pays, it is from your pay (labor)."
Good point. A. I say the employer can pay me more if they're off the hook for paying less to Uncle Sam. And B. Even if I can't haggle that with my employer, I'd love to get to keep more of my own money and invest for my future with my rules and under my strategy than have crooked broke government manage my retirement. To me it'd be worth it.
This is exactly what Bush Jr proposed in his first few months (before Sep 11 pretty much defined the rest of his presidency) to fix the SS system. Of course he was derided as trying to make wall street rich and such and it went nowhere.
If we went there I'd be okay. But the libertarian in me says just let me do what I want with the money. It's not the gubment's or anybody else's business whether I put that money into retirement investing, pay off debts, save for my kids' college, or buy new luxury cars.
Yeah, so much for algore’s “lock box”
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