It’s not really news. I can remember the numbers people laying this out at the end of the Reagan era....’there would come a day’. Well....it’s approaching.
There’s five or six tricks that you can do to resolve this or prevent it....but I don’t see the freak show (GOP and Democrats) willing to really take action. You could raise the ‘cap’ and have the more wealthy put more into it, which would infuriate them because it’s a waste of money. You could raise the retirement age, but get lots of people mad. You could change the cost of living measure. You could have a ‘means test’ which is what Trump has talked about. You could even use the estate tax business to resolve this (really bad idea).
Or you could privatize it (the Chile model).
I would take a lump sum payout of what my contributions over the year add up to, even if it was required to be deposited into my IRA and the lump sum amounted to Treasury Bonds with varying maturities. If my current 6% SSI tax and my employer match were set to be paid directly into my IRA every month, and my 401(k) contributions (together with my employer’s match) could similarly be directed to my IRA, I think I could be set for a nice long retirement if God gives me the years...
It won’t happen though. The Federal Reserve is the only institution that owns enough T-Bonds to make that work, and the government work for the Fed, not the other way around.
Raising age is the only ethical answer. It was meant as an end of life safety net. Not a retirement plan. Means testing is unethical because all who paid in were promised a return. That’s fraud. Making the wealthy pay more is garbage socialism. We’re already saddling the wealthy with too many bills.
You could also remove the illegals from the benefits.
You could change the cost of living measure.”””
Under Obama, food & gasoline costs were NOT considered in the “COL’ adjustments.
With $5 gallon gas, we got no increases.
Obama made sure that Fed employees got 2.5% increases. WE got .2% increase. I got $4 a month with that ‘adjustment’. My phone bill went up over $6 a month alone & with Nevada giving Illegals driver’s licenses, my vehicle insurance has gone up over $50 a month. Left me $52 a month further into the hole.
“You could raise the ‘cap’ and have the more wealthy put more into it, which would infuriate them because it’s a waste of money. You could raise the retirement age, but get lots of people mad. You could change the cost of living measure. You could have a ‘means test’ which is what Trump has talked about. You could even use the estate tax business to resolve this (really bad idea).”
Raising the cap And using the means test just increases socialism. The people paying in the most are already not going to get all of their money back. They are just subsidizing the lower earners who get many times what they have paid in.
My husband is 52. He was thinking of retiring next year But he has always said that he wants to “max out his Social Security”.. I got the Social Security calculations from their website, the endpoints for the three tiers, which changes each year.
If he were to continue working to 67 paying in at the same rate as this year increased by inflation, He would pay in about a quarter million dollars If you include his employers portion. And how much of that would be get back? At the most, about 35 thousand. And then he would have to live to 100.
Socialism at its finest.
The people that reach the top tier only get credit for 15% of what they pay in. Also, they only use the top 35 years worth of earnings. So the longer you pay in the earnings that you made at the beginning of your career don’t count anymore. All this makes those that work the hardest and the longest get screwed the most. As is typical with an a socialist system.
He will be quitting work next year and we will be done paying in to a failing system.