What about the option of converting to a Chilean Style Retirement System for those 45 and under?
See here:
Posted on 06/11/2018 8:09:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Social Security is like the classic children's tale, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." So many warnings have been made, no one listens anymore. Well guess what? The wolf's now at the door. Are you listening now?
For the first time in 36 years, Social Security will take money out of its "trust fund" — an accounting fiction that would get you jailed for fraud in the private sector — to pay retirees. The truth is, Social Security is for all intents and purposes bankrupt.
Since 2010, Social Security has been spending more than it took in, making up the difference by tapping into the interest paid on a $2.9 trillion government bond fund. That "interest" is really your tax dollars. Congress, you see, spent the actual money that came in through your payroll taxes and left IOUs. Now, even the interest on those entitlement IOUs is no longer enough. So they're going to have to start selling off assets to pay what they owe. Last year, it was $41 billion. It will only grow.
By 2034, the entire pile of IOUs will disappear. Everything. It will require slashing benefits by at least 21%, or raising payroll taxes by 31%. That's for workers who are today 50 years of age. It is a devastating fiscal picture, one that has profound meaning for our society going forward.
As Cato Institute economist Michael D. Tanner estimated in 2015, Social Security faces a long-term funding shortfall of $25 trillion and Medicare of $48 trillion. Yes, that's trillion with a "t." No doubt, it's far bigger today. To do nothing is tantamount to an irresponsible declaration of national bankruptcy over entitlements.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
1. Purge the rolls of non-citizens.
2. Demand medical re-qualification for all disability payments.
3. Re-confirm and validate anyone who receives their checks out of country.
That should start the ball trolling.
Remembering when I went to enroll for my retirement check. I waited later to collect my meager monthly stipend. At the office, about 75% of those in line wanting money were very OBSES citizens, who collected food stamps, and went to WalMart and rode around on electric carts filling up baskets to get more obese. One person had gone to 3 or 4 docters til he found one that wrote him a total disability recomendation. I would say cutting out those benefits, and not allowing immigrants who came to the country who never paid a dime or nickel, should find a church, synagoue or mosque, or a Bahai Temple where kind souls can give them a meager hand out.
“So folks, let’s say you were given the authority to fix the SS problem, what would you propose to cause the least pain? “
Cut of SS to illegals and people who did not contribute. Stop the SS disability scam for people who aren’t really disabled like the children whose parents get a ‘crazy letter’ from a doctor because their children are on meds.
How about this -— DISALLOW CONGRESS FROM USING/BORROWING THE MONEY CONTRIBUTED TO SOCIAL SECURITY FOR TODAY’s SPENDING.
*THAT* alone would be a biggie.
Agreed. Also, raise full retirement age to 72 for those currently 45 and under. Again, no one talks about welfare money running out. Apparently that well just keeps refilling.
RE: Cut of SS to illegals and people who did not contribute.
What would you say is the percentage of Social Security money going to illegals?
I would like to instead guess what they are going to do. It will be some combination of a special tax on the wealthy and simply printing more money to cover the bill.
That would lead to class warfare, and inflation. But it would also kick the can down the road another decade or two. And that’s always the safest play for politicians.
Yep. Disability really does need to be eliminated. However, a lot of us have planned our retirement around SS benefits which we were FORCED to pay for decades. If benefits are cut it could ruin us - literally.
This is one of the reasons we moved from Seattle to Rural KY, where we can have a nice home an acreage with a modest monthly payment on a 15 year mortgage. A divorce wiped out my savings and also affected my ability to build it back up. SS will save me from the consequences of that. I turn 66 in 2020.
4) Close the system.
4a) Anyone not currently part of the system will not be entered into it.
4b) Anyone currently in the system, but not receiving benefits, will be given the opportunity to cash out.
4c) Anyone currently in the system who chooses to remain will receive benefits as currently planned.
Like Singapore - require that every paycheck has a % withheld into a _private_ account. The government doesn’t have its paws on Singapore’s “social security”...
IIRC it’s 10% in Singapore - which compares favourably to our 15.65% ... plus it’s not in government hands.
My solution is not very popular, but I stand by it.
1) Immediately cease and desist all foreign entanglements (wars and conflicts and occupations), bringing our resources home.
2) Deport all illegals and punish employers with heavy fines and/or imprisonment for hiring illegals.
3) Adopt the widespread use of Thorium energy. That will not only shut up the climate change hoaxers, but give us the benefit of extremely cheap, clean, abundant, and safe energy for decades (if not centuries) to come. And it won’t produce weapons grade plutonium (much to the NeoCons’ chagrin).
4) unleash freedom on the people so they can see their way clear to be prosperous - without interference from senseless government regulations, a hostile legal environment, and the straight jacket of political correctness.
5) Identify and get rid of or neutralize the commies that have infiltrated our educational system and government.
My reply is not about least pain, it is about what I am expecting which is for Libs to cry for “fairness”. Such as it is not “fair” that military retirees double dip. They will say the two systems need to be combined to prevent the excessive drain on the retirement systems. The recipients do not “need” all that income at the expense of the more deserving.
A prime target will military officers that maxed out their SS taxes and then continued high paying jobs after retirement resulting in excessive above normal SS payouts. It is just not fair.
Since military officers do not tend to support democrats they are a prime target.
Once upon a time there was a kingdom in which the king promised to provide a trust for the elderly if they gave him a share of the money they earned all their lives. It seemed a pretty good idea at the time and, since the king demanded it, the people went along.
The people were industrious and flourished in spite of the confiscated money. Meanwhile, the king spent every penny that came into the trust. Some was spent on providing for the elderly that had not had time to chip into the trust but this showed good faith and what life would be like for the others when they retired. Most, however, was squandered by the king on a lavish life style.
Eventually the people grew old and wished to receive the benefits they had been purchasing all of their lives. They approached the king and asked for their just rewards. The king told them “There is no money. I spent it on more important things.” “Besides, you have been warned that we had already spent the money – why did you not provide for your own retirement? I cannot be bothered with your poverty. Go! Go and live on turnips and cat food for all I care.”
So, the people left, grumbling. “The king lives large, he has vast holdings of land and other things of untold value, more than enough to make us whole.” “Yes, and most of that stuff he neither needs nor should be allowed to own.” “You’re right!” “I think the king needs to hold a garage sale and give me my money.”
So the good people stormed the castle and sold or took what was rightly theirs. They also forced the king to stop robbing their children as he had robbed them and they all lived happily ever after except for the king who, having been used to arugula and Wagyu beef, didn’t like living on turnips and cat food. The end.
And sue Congress and former Congressmen’s estates for stealing out of the funds.
Good start but how about not handing SS or SSDI out to those who never paid in period.
Unfortunately, I have enough of faith in the pragmatic nihilism of our nanny-state government to say this.
Take SS taxes out of the ‘general fund’.
IOW SS revenue can only be spent on SS recipients.
And SS recipients have to be old citizens.
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