Raising the retirement ages and increasing the contributions is not a solution because it doesn't address the fundamental problem that I just described.
All the graphs and utterances from so-called experts mean exactly nothing. It is graphs and experts that have gotten us into the present situation.
What is need now is some good, old, down home common sense. And, some hard mindedness that calls a spade a spade.
Do you know what an expert is? He/she is an X with a pert behind it.
Paid back? The SSTF has $2.5 trillion in non-market, interest bearing T-bills. They will be used, and they are being used now, when outgo [benefits] exceeds revenue [payroll tax.] The USG must redeem them.
SS has always been a pay as you go system. The issue is not whether SS will be paid back or not, but rather whether the USG can afford to carry its national debt. The $2.5 trillion in the SSTF is just part of the national debt of almost $14 trillion. The problem is that the USG will have to borrow money or increase income and other taxes to redeem the bonds in the SSTF.
All the graphs and utterances from so-called experts mean exactly nothing. It is graphs and experts that have gotten us into the present situation.
Now you are being silly. These graphs I provided portray the actual situation we are in vis a vis SS. It comes from the SS Trustee reports. We can not sustain SS as currently structured. Demographics and the fact that SS COLA increases [CPI-W] are not linked to revenue make the system unsustainable. These are actuarial statistics. It is really simple math. We must either decrease benefits or increase revenue to make the system balanced fiscally. We did something similar in 1983 when SS went into the red. Personally I prefer personal accounts and privatizing SS except for a small defined benefit program to cover disability and survivor benefits.