[randita]

As it is, the money flow tipping point (whether more money was going into or coming out of the SS fund) was predicted to happen in 2017 has started as of 2010.

My guess as to why the predictions were so wildly off base is that during the recession a lot of people who lost jobs felt they had no recourse other than accept early retirement (age 62-65). We considered it ourselves, but decided to cut our budget a lot and muddle through for another few years until we qualified for full SS. We're glad we did.

[hinckley buzzard]

I think you are right. Retirement has been the unnoticed back door out of unemployment status. The fact that so few if any pundits have mentioned it is even more evidence that it is the secret no one wants to talk about, when crowing about the decline in "unemployed."