How about simply limiting the payout to what was paid in plus
the interest it would have earned if invested in 30 year tbills.
If any payout was due at all (It’s not, in my opinion), then the government should do something similar as to what you stated (limiting the payout to what was paid in plus
the interest it would have earned if invested in 30 year tbills). In a simple lump some payment, one time, nothing more. There’s no money anyway, so they may as well “monetize the debt” (so to speak) and get it all done with at once. That way at least the younger generations can recover, and those who supported the system can reap the fruits of the economic environment that created/allowed for 50+ years of adult life.
There’s no mistake, there’s no money, and there’s no way to “save” Social Security. You can’t squeeze blood from a rock. Perry was correct that the younger generations aren’t stupid, they know they’ve been lied to and there’s nothing coming to them for what they are and have been paying. Everyone is crying about Obamacare and being forced to buy insurance, but not being forced to but “security” or retirement. Make it 100% voluntary, by eliminating it altogether and let people do as they see fit with their own money. If they squander it away, that’s not the fault of anyone else. Social Security is a failure, no amount of planning can ever change that, because as famously phrase, you ALWAYS run out of other people’s money. We ran out of ours years ago, and we’re quickly running out of foreigners buying our debts now. Soon the only people’s “money” we’ll have is the FED’s, which is really just our own money being made worthless. It’s time for people to get real.