Except it is all a lie. Every dime of taxes that is supposed to go into SS and Medicare is instead immediately spent, and then some. Congress figure out long ago that if they just appropriated enough money to pay for the monthly expenses, then they could call the system “solvent”. It is anything but.
However, their treachery also points out how to turn the fraud into something real and tangible that won’t be stolen by greedy politicians. Because they were right, as long as the money is paid out monthly, the system still *seems* to work.
And importantly, it *doesn’t need* any “new” money into the system, as long as those payments are made. So it can be dismantled, and a real system built to take its place, without hurting any beneficiaries now or in the future.
The *only* player that does get hurt is the government, by being denied “free money to waste”. Something I think we can all live with.
But guaranteed if we leave things the way they are now, the suffering will be terrible.
Right now, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid amount to 43% of federal spending. Primary receipt categories included individual income taxes ($1,395B or 46% of total receipts), and Social Security/Social Insurance taxes ($1,024B or 34%). Add these two together to see what our REAL Income taxes are right now.
It was a damned lie and it must end.
[[So it can be dismantled, and a real system built to take its place, without hurting any beneficiaries now or in the future.]]
I don’t see how it can be done unless there is a large enough ratio of workers to non workers- (unless there is some way to invest the money for large enough gains to be able to pay people more than they put into the system like SS does- but the SS model relies on a good number of folks paying in but not living long enough to collect)
[[The *only* player that does get hurt is the government, by being denied “free money to wasteâ€. Something I think we can all live with.]]
I agree with that- but really, the government won’t be ‘hurt’- they will just be losing something that isn’t theirs to begin with, and will have to quit funding useless programs like federally funded studies, stop paying hundreds of billions of dollars for illegals, stop sending terrorist nations hundreds of billions of dollars etc- The free for all spending spree has to stop-
we gave the government a credit card, and they are being grotesquely irresponsible with it- The system was fine when it went to helping those who truly neede3d it like the elderly, the sick, and even helping single moms get back o n their feet with temporary help- And I think most healthy working people would feel we as a nation have an obligation to help those who can’t help themselves very well- but liberals have so perverted the system that now everyone and their brother is on welfare, illegals are on it, nearly 70% of ALL immigrants (legal and illegal combined) are on it whether they are able bodied or not- millions who aren’t disabled are now on disability-
This is what broke the system and overwhelmed it financially— Had it remained available only for the truly needy, and the retired, there would be plenty of money
I agree something has to be done now, but we must make sure that retirees, and the disabled and veterans are taken care of while transitioning- I know many disabled and elderly that get by on as little as $650 a month- and they are just barely surviving- (many do get more, but many folks only worked min wage jobs all their lives and ended up getting below poverty SS or Disability when they became disabled and couldn’t work any longer)
The whole deal with SS was that it works like health insurance used to work- people would pick up health insurance, pay in their whole lives, and need it only briefly at the end, or die suddenly and not use it- this is what keeps the industry alive (well, that and insurance claims adjusters denying payments for certain cases)- The4 whole idea of course is to get more coming in than is going out-, and for that you need lots of people involved to get the averages in favor of those who need it In the end-
With individual plans, you don’t have that advantage- there’s just what the individual puts in, and it usually won’t be enough to keep them for the rest of their lives ocne they retire, and so many will go to nursing homes and end up costing loads to the government who have now lost the income from SS
Meh- it’s complicated- I’m no financial guru that’s for sure-