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Thanks to COVID-19, Social Security’s day of reckoning may be even closer than we thought
Market Watch ^ | April 15, 2020 | Paul Brandus

Posted on 04/16/2020 12:04:43 PM PDT by Hojczyk

Prior to the economic downturn—or collapse—that we’re now experiencing, the trust fund was projected to run out of money by 2035.

This has, practically overnight, gotten worse. Why? Because some 16 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last three weeks. This means there are a lot fewer—millions fewer—people paying those payroll taxes into the Social Security system.

And on top of a lot less money coming in, a lot more will soon be going out. That’s because people who are now out of work and eligible to draw benefits may soon do so, out of sheer economic need.

This one-two punch could mean the depletion of the trust fund sooner than 2035. How soon? Perhaps two years earlier—2033—estimates one of the country’s leading experts on Social Security, Alicia H. Munnell, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, and a MarketWatch columnist.

This means the gap between what Social Security takes in and what it pays out—which, again was growing to begin with—will widen further. “The trust fund has been filling that gap,” Munnell adds, “but as that gap gets bigger, the trust fund will be used up faster.

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: handouts; ponzi; welfare
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1 posted on 04/16/2020 12:04:43 PM PDT by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk

I have always assumed that it would collapse before I got old enough to draw on it.


2 posted on 04/16/2020 12:07:22 PM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: Hojczyk

Just pass a unanimous consent Multi-$$$$$$$$$$trillion dollar bailout...../s


3 posted on 04/16/2020 12:07:56 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

This country’s day of reckoning may be closer than we all thought.


4 posted on 04/16/2020 12:10:00 PM PDT by TheConservator (All the blather about TrumpÂ’s violation of the law is simply a projection of their own lawlessness.)
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To: MrEdd

Me too, born 1960, by 1985 knew I would not get a dime.
Stuffed as much as legal for as long as I could into the 401k.


5 posted on 04/16/2020 12:10:51 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Hojczyk
Ponzi just sped up his scheme.
6 posted on 04/16/2020 12:11:09 PM PDT by immadashell (Save Innocent Lives - ban gun free zones)
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To: Hojczyk

Just asinine. On the other side of that, millions of the middle-aged and elderly will die a decade or more before they normally would have. One Italian joked then the state pension fund must have come up with this virus in collusion with the national health care program, thereby zeroing out hundreds of billions of euros in state-funded pension and medical care obligations.


7 posted on 04/16/2020 12:11:57 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: Hojczyk

But the welfare system is sound right?


8 posted on 04/16/2020 12:13:07 PM PDT by Envisioning (Carry safe, always carry, everyday, everywhere.)
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To: MrEdd

“I have always assumed that it would collapse before I got old enough to draw on it.”

Been to an SSA office lately? They have interpreters for 10 different languages. They’re giving benefits to everyone who falls across the border.


9 posted on 04/16/2020 12:17:00 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: Hojczyk

Social Security will never run out of money as long as the Government can print money.


10 posted on 04/16/2020 12:18:29 PM PDT by FewsOrange
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To: Envisioning

“”””But the welfare system is sound right?””””

Yup. They always seem to have money for that.


11 posted on 04/16/2020 12:19:31 PM PDT by shelterguy
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To: Hojczyk

This ponzi scheme needs to end permanently.

I never signed up for it. Someone else signed me up.

I never had the chance to determine if i wanted to enter this contract.

They also put the signers, my folks, under duress at the hospital saying they can’t/won’t let babies leave without being enrolled in SS.

And once signed up, by someone else, you have no way of leaving the contract and getting your money back that was collected.

If this were done to someone for any other comtract they’re forced into or someone else signed for them, there would be considered massive violations of contract law. Coercion, duress, being told there’s no way to volutntarily not sign up, etc, no way out of a contract for a person who never agreed to all the terms in the first place.


12 posted on 04/16/2020 12:20:07 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Hojczyk

Pure BS. SS is wealth transfer scheme (aka as welfare) and cannot go broke. It takes from current taxpayers and gives to current recipients. All taxation and benefits are political calculations.

To imply that SS can go broke implies it has legal binding obligations and that revenue is static. It does not.

SS holds US Treasury bonds. Which are redeemed via current tax revenue. It is a shell game.


13 posted on 04/16/2020 12:26:05 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: Hojczyk
Fun fact about social security, the change in Ratio of Covered Workers to Beneficiaries

Year: workers to beneficiaries
1940: 159 to 1
2013: 2.8 to 1

When it started, most people died before they got any benefit. The so-called safety net was really a tax, and a safety net last. Now the unfunded liabilities is drowning us in future debt.

14 posted on 04/16/2020 12:27:12 PM PDT by Widget Jr
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To: Widget Jr

Hmm. My aunt (let aunt) who was born in 1909, was a businesswoman. She said Social Security was a lame-brained scheme of the loathsome democrats.


15 posted on 04/16/2020 12:37:18 PM PDT by stanne
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To: stanne

Your aunt was a smart lady.


16 posted on 04/16/2020 12:39:35 PM PDT by Widget Jr
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To: Secret Agent Man

There’s another side to that:

A friend who is in her late 50s, developed a serious autoimmune condition (actually a cluster of them), in her late teens. She underwent 17 different surgeries, needs all vitamins or meds injected since she cannot take oral medication. Her cohort was not automatically enrolled in SS, but her age meant she could be enrolled under her parents’ accounts. Because of that, she gets SSDI that *helps* with her medical needs, which can easily run to $30k/year with no catastrophic incidents (& does not cover any medical equipment or supplies not used in a hospital setting). Her grant is small if the totally covered hospitalization isn’t counted and is only for months when she can’t work. She is not a taker and is a religious conservative.

In reality, she had to choose between food stamps and medical assistance. She works as she can and provides for herself as she can. Raised 3 great kids, who also help her out as they can. Great, tight family.

Being enrolled means rights as well as obligations. Just luck that anyone doesn’t need to draw at any given time. You never know what can happen or when.

I’m 77. I’ve paid from age 15 to this year, when I finally retired. I was self-employed for well over 40 years. I paid double and get very little. It isn’t a generous program, but it’s a backstop if the worst happens.


17 posted on 04/16/2020 12:45:26 PM PDT by reformedliberal
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To: Widget Jr

She certainly was.


18 posted on 04/16/2020 12:52:19 PM PDT by stanne
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To: Hojczyk

Trillions in debt and spending like there is no tomorrow. What could possibly go wrong? America is too big to fail! /s I actually didn’t think the fall of America would be this swift in my lifetime.


19 posted on 04/16/2020 12:55:43 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: Hojczyk
Once the gub’mint began paying all kinds of folks money out of the once lucrative pot (in the ‘60s) felons in prison got SS checks for disability (alcoholics), homeless (drug addicts), moms and dads with kids born with “disabilities” like learning disabled. When did parents know this - at birth of course! SS is big with “foster parents” because their kids have problems by being unwanted, mom’s a crack addict & kids taken away, etc. so they sign these kids for their SS that’s why they take them in the first place - and many are declared disabled prior to 6mos old.

Bye bye SS pot of $$$.

Even my one time neighbors, she from Britain, he from Iran, bring his mom & dad to US (not one of these folks are citizens, mind you) sign up parents who soon get SS checks.

Then there are SS employees themselves who get checks mailed to themselves for long-dead relatives!

Every gub’mint program is rife with fraud and have been for decades but so long as the golden goose kept the money flooding in, all’s OK.

That goose has been killed and we’re about to eat it as pantry is bare!

20 posted on 04/16/2020 12:59:53 PM PDT by zerosix (native sunflower)
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