Social Security Thoughts

With the attention given to Social Security in Mr. Bush's speech last night, I found many posts arguing about it. The following is a list of comments that I tend to agree with regarding the program. Most of the comments come from here. I've sanitized it to remove names of people and clean up some of the insulting language used by certain, less than mature people.

1) Bottom line–it is theft. The government is stealing my money. It IS my money. I go to work everyday and I earn it. I love you Mom, but it is not your money and it is not the government’s money. It is my money. You raised me to be a hard worker but if you had told me so it was so the government could steal from me maybe I would have considered other options. I could have been a crack whore-liberals would claim it was because I was downtrodden and I would have had a free ride for life. Or, I could have become a housewife with a pile of kiddies-conservatives would say I was doing my wifely duty and given me lots of nice tax cuts like the Child Income Credit. As it is I am paying for the welfare Moms, the soccer Moms, the Viagra needing lecherous old men, and I am staring down the barrel at having to fund the bingo and golf money for the enormous Baby Boomer generation–give me a break, can I please keep something for me??

2) Fascinating debate. My position is a simple one. Republicans say it’s your money and your responsibility. Invest wisely or suffer the consequences. Democrats say you can’t be trusted with your money, give it to the government and the nanny state will do what is best for you. Hmm, tough choice, eh?

3) Argument: And just where are younger people supposed to get all of this money to put in non-SS 401k’s and other such private retirement accounts? In 2018 the outflows overwhelm the inflows for SS. Then the Government must use the "SS Trust Fund.” The government MUST either:
· Cut spending and run a perpetual surplus (impossible AND is using MY income tax money to give to older generations who used that revenue to lower their past income tax rates/spend more)
· Raise FICA taxes on my (and future) generations AGAIN (started out at 4% for the LOTTERY WINNERS but don’t seem to be quite that low any more)
· Raise MY income taxes to make up the shortfall
· Borrow more money and add it to the national debt (and by doing that use up more of my income tax money to pay debt service so fewer services for me and also make interest rates rise and increase the costs of public and PRIVATE borrowing.)

Seems to me that any way the pie gets sliced all I end up with is the bill. In addition, that only "works” until 2041 when the fictitious "trust fund” runs out.

So we in the future are facing: massive cuts in OUR available government services, higher interest rates, MUCH higher income AND FICA taxes, and working MUCH longer since we will have far less take home pay and no way to have thousands let alone pennies to throw into a 401k.

Raise the retirement age to the average age of death NOW and index it to life expectancy. Everyone who is already collecting SS made out like a bandit and spread the rest of the pain FAIRLY to the rest of us. People have been shouting about the coming SS implosion for DECADES!We future generations owe you NOTHING! Voting yourselves largesse out of the Treasury and giving future generations the bill is not a "generational social contract” it is THEFT! If you and people like you continue on with the charade that Social Security is fine and dandy and needs no reform, NOTHING is exactly what you are going to get! When every working man and woman in this country is paying 80 to 90% tax rates so you can get far more out of SS that you ever paid in you better believe that we are going to cut you off! You have absolutely zero sympathy for our future plight and we will have zero sympathy for yours when you are living in the street because you tried to do it to us first.

Rebuttal: I agree with you that SS is broken and in need of a radical fix. Still, you can’t blame us boomers for a system that was created in the 1930s. We (well, not me but most of my generation) have been paying into this crappy system for 30 years, based on a promise made by Uncle Sam. Whatever money we get back will be less than our investment unless we live to be well into our 80s. Had that money been put into a mutual fund with a 12% return we wouldn’t be facing this issue. So, let’s find a way to get you people out of the system while keeping the promise made to the oldsters. It is not our fault that we are in this situation, and we are not asking for anything more than we were promised, and have even acknowledged we will have to settle for less, but not 60% less.

4) We pay to fix it now, or we pay triple to fix it later. Are private accounts critical to the fix? No. We could raise the age limit, cut benefits or tax the crap out of our kids, all unacceptable in my opinion. The only way to go are the accounts. Take any 30 year snapshot of market performance - from any starting point – You’ll see that the market beat the pants off of the current SS growth rate.

These are just a sampling. I do think the system either needs to be majorly reformed or just killed off. But, as that won't be allowed to happen, I'm leaning in favor of the private accounts myself. I'm sure we'll get more information and vitrol later.