Posted on 10/24/2015 5:32:28 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As the younger people and those coming behind them become the majority of society, they can change to SS laws to suit themselves. It is a democracy after all. In the meantime, keep sending me those checks. I’m mighty grateful.
I thought Our Country was a Republic!
So, the government takes care of people in their old age, promotes abortion and birth control to limit population growth, and then wonders why there aren’t enough young people to support the old people.
Typical parasite mentality.
Sorry, dear. If anything, the US is a nation-state.
Although there are changes that occurred before Gonzales v. Raich, the interpretation of the Commerce Clause that allows federal government to regulate anything it chooses down to the level, as Justice Thomas wrote in dissent, of church suppers, that Supreme Court decision blew down remaining barriers to federal reach.
There is no longer a notion of enumerated powers to which the feds are restricted, and the states are no longer individual laboratories of democracy.
We do not live in a republic, but it was nice while it lasted.
I thought so also, but now I know we are not, the best thing that could happen for the free spirited individual is for the country to break up into regional nations and hopefully one would become a Constitutional Republic like the original thirteen colonies.
We are NOT a Democracy—We are a Republic.
Democracy is mob rule.
I pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands, etc.
What makes you think they will make changes that only affect them?
I hate to burst this bubble: the only obligation to keep sending you checks is political. You have no contractual right to it.
Don't believe it? FLEMMING V. NESTOR 363 U.S. 603
Short version: Congress changed the law to revoke the Social Security benefits of certain people. Nestor sued, claiming he has a contract. US Supreme Court said: no, Congress reserved the power to change Social Security to themselves. Period.
The only way you will keep getting Social Security checks in your current amount is a huge increase in the payroll tax immediately, and again in 2057. All total, the payroll tax increase would be about 50%
Social Security has no choice. The Trust Fund will be exhausted, and the SSA can't borrow money. And, save me the usual bluster about "stealing from Social Security". The Trust Fund was INVESTED in the equivalent of long-term Treasury bonds, and the SSA is now redeeming the bonds. They'll all be gone in 2034.
Lots of proposals have been floated. You can read the comments at the link, and the usual discredited ones are promoted as the "way to save SS". They don't. The Social Security evaluated dozens of proposals on their website, and tells you the long-term effect. The only one that works is the massive tax increase.
I always get flamed about this. But, I'll tell you right now: save your breath. The Social Security Administration has been telling you this in your annual letter for at least a decade, but people scream so loudly, they won't touch it. So, the situation keeps getting worse, and we are well past the point of being able to fix it without a lot of pain.
You really want to know what happened to all the taxes you paid to Social Security? They were paid to your parents and grandparents (or someone else's). Your contributions are long-gone, and all you have in return is a promise that the federal government will do the same to your children and grandchildren so you can get a check.
When it comes to government taking, as this piece proves, Kelo is nothing.
The reason there aren't enough young people is: the "old people" no longer saw a need to have lots of kids.
For most of this country's history, people had lots of kids. They did so in the hope that at least one of them would survive disease and accidents and succeed well enough to take care of their parents when they were too old to work. You still see this behavior in third-world countries.
Thanks to better health care, and income transfer schemes like Social Security, it's no longer necessary for a couple to have lots of kids. So, our fertility rate has actually dropped BELOW replacement. I think it's about 1.9 now, and replacement is 2.1, after accounting for early mortality.
Back in the 80's, the Social Security administration did three projections of economic and demographic trends: pessimistic, intermediate, and optimistic. They used the intermediate projections to determine the tax rate needed to make Social Security solvent for 75 years.
The problem? The PESSIMISTIC projection turned out to be closer to the truth. In some factors, even that was too optimistic. So, almost every year -- the year of reckoning (when the Trust Fund is exhausted) gets closer and closer.
And hardly anyone is paying attention.
Outside the box, my man, the only place to be is outside the box. Perhaps it will be an Indian reservation for me.
One thing that you are not taking into account is the huge sums that are given to non citizens from the social security funds in the form of SSI payments. All a Cuban has to do is set foot on US soil and his income is paid for by your social security money. Haitians and Jews from Russia get paid too and there is potential that people from Syria will be on the dole before too long as well.
There is a way to avoid the tax increases needed. We’ve all seen (or heard of) “Logan’s Run” and “Soylent Green” versions of the future. The eldest are “taken care of”. No elderly; no payments. AND THEY STILL COLLECT THE TAXES.
The process is well underway. Billions upon billions have been taken out of SS and Medicare. Retirement housing is sorely needed for the elderly. The death panels will be used against the elderly. And the Ponzi scheme will continue.
The government savings scheme is losing its value, little by little every year. So being good self reliant people, we save our own money for later years. And what interest rate do we get for our troubles - ZERO.
Recently, the government announced that there would be no Social Security benefit increase next year. That’s only happened twice before in the past 40 years.
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All three under Obama.
In 2034, the Social Security benefits might get cut. In the meantime, Medicare will be bankrupt in 2016 unless the program is reformed. And it will be reformed, but in a way for which there is already precedent. Medicare premiums will shortly escalate sharply for all but the poorest of retirees. They will eventually consume the entire social security benefit for affluent retirees. Affluent retirees won’t get any cash payout on Social Security but, of course, they’ll have to pay income taxes on the “benefit”. Boomers are screwed, but if they were paying attention, they knew this was going to happen when they started their careers. Even Barry Goldwater warned that it was a Ponzi scheme.
SSI payments are funded out of general revenue. They do not affect the balance of the Social Security trust fund.
The Social Security Administration only administrates the program.
I'd rather my money go to my children and my grandchildren...
I'm 62 and not on SS yet...thinking about it ....
but we younger boomers really got the screw job....we have paid in a greater percentage of our income for SS/Medicare than any previous generations and yet still have to wait if we want "full" SS at a later time....
Nothing has been taken out of Social Security.
It was used to buy votes from your parents and grandparents, and possibly you.
Any intergenerational income transfer scheme is doomed by demographics to fail. The only way to keep them going is to keep raising taxes.
That’s why countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore have switched to asset-based plans.
You silly peasant./sarc
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