Posted on 07/14/2017 8:53:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The government is out today with its annual update of Social Security’s sick finances:
--The system is $12.5 trillion under water, up from $11.4 trillion a year ago.
--Absent law changes, checks to retirees will have to be chopped 23% beginning in 2035.
--To fix just the retirement pay program, Congress could kick up the payroll tax by 2.8 percentage points. Fixing Medicare’s disastrous finances would be in addition.
--The retirement operation is running an $86 billion annual deficit. That’s the difference between the money coming in from Social Security’s share of payroll taxes (12.4% of covered payroll) and the money going out in monthly checks and in overhead.
Ponzi? That’s too kind an interpretation. A Ponzi scheme has old investors being paid off with money raised from new ones. In this case there isn’t enough cash coming in from new players to pay off the old ones. The $86 billion shortfall is being covered in traditional federal fashion, by drawing on general tax revenues and by printing money.
The trustees of the Social Security system put the grim news in as positive light as they can. They cheerily note that “asset reserves” grew from $2,813 billion at the end of 2015 to $2,848 billion at the end of 2016.
But these “reserves” are not a pile of saved capital in the form of stocks, bonds and mortgages. Rather, they are a bookkeeping entry in which the government borrows money from the government, and the government pretends to have “income” by collecting interest from…the government.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Do something like Chile and move to an expanded IRA system that is deductible upon contribution, and tax-exempt on withdrawal. Get the government out of it.
Let people decide if they want to stick with conventional SS or move to the new system, or perhaps a hybrid.
Like an IRA, you can pass on to your heirs if you croak before retirement age.
I know I’m dreaming.
I didn't deny it started with Roosevelt so I don't know where you got that from; also, Roosevelt only wanted it only as a temporary thing not something people could depend on for retirement purposes.
PS: SS is giving out money to those who’ve not paid into it so that’s where a lot of the deficit comes from.
Some life isn’t it? Just another plan gone wrong because somebodys stole from us. Like you, for me anything past 2035 is gravy and I don’t figure I’ll need much by then. Unfortunately one side of my family tends to live quite awhile and I seem to have inherited some of those genes.
If possilbe the best plan is to work and then die. That is what they all really want us to do. Oh, and pay taxes so they can give it away until we do die.
I keep thinking of an old Hymn, “This world is not my home I’m just a’passin’ through. If Heaven’s not my home oh Lord what will I do?” I certainly hope so. Outside my front gate most things irritate, frustrate and scare me.
If you work for someone, your employer may have other ideas. I found out the hard way.
how true...
Fake News. Forbes is illiterate.
Twisted rant. Confused terminology.
Medicare is NOT Social Security.
Medicade is NOT Medicare.
Social Security is a simple calculation.
Taxes in = Retirees out - overhead.
I agree, but think the problem involves the entire SSDI concept, real and fake.
SS is an old-age retirement “insurance” program, financed by payroll taxes in a Ponzi scheme.
SSDI is an any-age welfare program that is not financed by anything except stealing SS taxes and borrowing from China.
My favorite OT book is Ecclesiastes. It sums this life up very nicely. And it is a very temporary thing.
I actually see it as sort of a “very real feeling” virtual reality game, or something like the Matrix.
On the other hand, the REAL world awaits. So this one doesn’t really frighten me. It’s not real, in the real sense.
Refugees are given disability for not speaking English, even though they never worked here and paid into the system.
The more experience you have and the more you cost the more you become a target to be gotten rid of.
Even self-employment has a shelf life in some cases.
Irrelevant metaphor.
SS is NOT defined benefit.
However, the socialists wish to split and dilute the money pot with the world’s population.
The Democrats wish to destroy SS from entitlement into welfare and bankruptcy.
Wake up Chauncey! You’re dreaming!
Anything practical will never be done here because there are too many pockets left unpicked by the politicians and their buddies.
SS has been raided and raped by a new hoarde of disabled. For example, the guy down the road who gets an SS disability check because he is basically too fat to run anymore. He was on the local police force.
He goes by here riding his Harley. He is 2/3 my age and gets around better than I do. I see him when I am outside working.
Obama made SS disability the permanent replacement for welfare.
Retirement Age Increase = Death Panels
Stupid plan.
Leave retirement age untouched especially since many elderly cannot be hired. Increasing retirement age is similar to death panels for Obamacare. It is denial of service.
Younger folks simply take their early benefits and save it to a personal account. This is stronger since they control their account.
>
give people options to partially/fully opt-out
>
Nobody can opt out. The day they are a starving, homeless, elderly person sleeping on the sidewalk, they will want to OPT IN. And the Govt will give it to them.
It is like preexisting, wait until you are sick, and demand health insurance.
Opt out, wait until homeless, then demand retirement.
(quitting posting for a while - this page load took over three minutes to load)
Yes, it is a ponzi scheme. Yes, congresslosers have looted it over the years. Just think of how grand the looting has been when you take into consideration all the people who have put-in but have died relatively young, getting nothing or little.
Tricky Dick!
However since then, Congress has used SSA receipts as part of the General Fund Revenues, it is too late to save Social Security. Our only hope is that the future generation of payees will make up the deficit! ROTFLHWC
(rolling on the floor laughing while crying)
.
Patience!
He’ll get his in due time.
.
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