From Birch Gold Group
The Social Security system is expected to have enormous financial pressures placed on its back for the next two decades.
If nothing is done, in 2034 the clock will be ticking for this and other entitlement programs like Medicare.
But a “tipping point” may be coming faster than most people think. Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan had a prescription to offer in a recent Newsmax piece. There’s his “easier said than done” part:
The best way to solve this problem is to fund our benefits, get a balanced budget, and the system will work.
Okay, that seems reasonable. And something does have to be done, or Social Security could be running on fumes by the time 2034 arrives.
Then there is Greenspan’s “not so easy” and ever-controversial prescription (emphasis ours):
He said “the actuaries of the Social Insurance system say that in order to be actuarially solvent through the life of the programs, we would have to cut benefits by 25 percent right now and extending into the future.”
He said eventually America will have to come to some resolution with entitlement benefits because “the end of the road is very serious trouble,” while adding that defined benefits have been a big problem.
This isn’t the first time Greenspan has offered his radical ideas for an ailing Social Security System. His prescription involves a monetarily “defined contribution” rather than a “defined benefit” payout. He claims that Sweden has benefited from employing this type of approach.
But Sweden has a smaller economic structure, and a much smaller economy. While Greenspan’s prescription probably won’t come to pass, it does highlight the need for a solution before the “time is up” for Social Security.
Stale ideas like raising the retirement age or raising taxes have been implemented in the past. Now it appears Congress may be leveraging both of those into something more disturbing.
Congress Has a “New” Idea About Social Security
On one hand, raising the retirement age allows for more time to contribute to the Social Security system. On the other hand, raising taxes puts more money into the system, but it’s a highly disliked idea. In 1983, both happened.
Granted, people are living longer, so raising the retirement age doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Until you realize that would be like getting a benefit cut, and Reuter’s columnist Mark Miller explains why:
That’s because it raises the bar on how long workers must wait to receive 100% of their benefits. Moreover, gains in longevity are not being distributed evenly across the population, and higher retirement ages would hit some much harder than others.
The idea of raising taxes is hard to swallow. But it’s even harder when those same taxes are being used as a wealth transfer instead of supporting social insurance.
With a recently proposed Congressional Act called Social Security 2100 that Rep. John Larsen proposed, that potential wealth transfer already had a hearing in February.
First, there would be a payroll tax increase from 12.4% to 14.8% over 25 years. Then, Larsen proposes resuming payroll tax collection above $400,000 while maintaining the lower non-taxable boundary of $132,000 that rises with inflation.
But those increased taxes wouldn’t translate into a higher lifetime benefit payment. According to a piece at Agora Financial, that isn’t what the architects envisioned for Social Security in the 1930s (emphasis ours):
The Social Security program is intended to be primarily a required-savings program and not primarily an income-redistribution program,” says William Reichenstein, business professor emeritus at Baylor. “In a required-savings program, there is a reasonably close relationship between taxes paid and benefits received, while in an income-redistribution program this relationship is not close.
So it appears like Congress wants to both “pass the buck” and redistribute wealth without paying you your fair share. Not good, and it furthers the idea that Social Security needs real solutions instead of stale ideas.
That, or we may reach a “tipping point” faster than we thought.
The Ralph Waldo Emerson Retirement Idea
Emerson once wrote an essay about building self-reliance into your life. That idea can be helpful for your retirement, and here’s why…
Social Security isn’t meant to sustain your retirement by itself, it’s only meant to supplement it. Regardless, if cut in the future, it would be unfair for the millions who have contributed for decades.
That’s not even considering life circumstances that may force you to take benefits early. Bottom line, the program is running out of time and Congress is struggling to come up with a solution.
What Greenspan is suggesting isn’t for the faint of heart either. But it serves as a reminder that changes to the system are necessary. It also serves as a signal that you need to make other preparations.
Don’t wait until the last minute to take control. Start preparing now so you can have a retirement built with self-reliance.
After 8 long years of ultra-loose monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, it’s no secret that inflation is primed to soar. If your IRA or 401(k) is exposed to this threat, it’s critical to act now! That’s why thousands of Americans are moving their retirement into a Gold IRA. Learn how you can too with a free info kit on gold from Birch Gold Group. It reveals the little-known IRS Tax Law to move your IRA or 401(k) into gold. Click here to get your free Info Kit on Gold.
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What’s that you say? Socialism doesn’t work? I’m shocked I tell you, SHOCKED!
Give the SS money to illegals, give that money to people who never paid into the system and watch how fast it runs out. More takers than providers? No problemo. I would rather have been allowed to keep said tax monies and invested it myself than being forced to pay into a pyramid scheme. I had no say in the matter and would’ve suffered grave consequences had I not paid the pound of flesh. Also, SS money was never supposed to be permanent (like the income tax) and it was supposed to be dedicated rather than turned into a giant slush fund for congress and presidential vermin.
Here’s a better idea. Give me tax credits for all the money I’ve poured into that hole and the 2% return I would have gotten if it existed when I retire and let me not pay in any more.
Ponzi schemes always go belly up because there isn’t enough new people to support the existing.
there aren’t enough
Didn’t Mama EC teach you never to use contractions?
I skipped capitalizing and you want to bitch about a contraction. I know that can not is preferable to can’t. Here’s the thing, moron. It’s a free country. If people actually wrote like their grade school teacher taught them, they would end up with cluttered sentences. I prefer straightforward declarations. If I can abbreviate, so much the better.
Just checking to see if you are breathing today. Cannot is the preferred form, though can not is acceptable.
Caps don’t bother me, as sometimes the cap keys are broken on a machine.
Now that it’s settled, is it beer at your house or mine?
it’s half past twelve and I don’t care…It’s five o’clock somewhere, and I don’t care..
Waiting for EC to throw a neat video at me; can you tell him I’m waiting?
I gave up commas and bitchy for Lent and am scrimping on periods and apostrophes anticipating a famine
I have an idea… Put a social security tax on corporate profit. Is not corporations people just like us that have to pay social security tax on our income? And how about investment income? Shouldn’t that have a social security tax on it also?
Just saying.
Did not the government drain the social security fund to pay for the Vietnam War? When are those IOUs going to get paid back to the fund? Who made out the most from all our wars? Is it not the industries that produce the arms? Let those industries pay back the money taken from the social security fund that paid for all those arms produced by the military complex industries that were paid with social security taxes paid in by the working people.
The generations after the boomers are dying at an early age due to excessive drug use and bad eating habits. So I don’t think social security is in trouble as long as the politicians keeps their hands off of the funds coming in.
Put government workers in the system . Why should we pay for theirs any longer?
Cut the 700BILLION military cost in half and give it to granny…….problem solved.
BL
“Put government workers in the system ”
They have been, since 1985.
Anon- Not their money of which I was speaking. State workers in 50 states could bring that shortfall to a surplus.
Bea, have you seen Uncola? I think his feelings got hurt.
Well, someone doppled him and diluted his brand…not sure who…
https://youtu.be/91E770heRus
Yeah?
Jay LLPOH Silverheels first gig..
n, now I’m worried that Sen. Warren will see this and decide that Tonto is her great-great grandfather and she deserves to be elected on that basis alone.
Damn, those sure were fine horses those guys rode!
Are you feeling guilty EC? Stucky had a side business doppling me for a long time. I just barbed his ass and went on yammering. You can’t be thin skinned around here.
Feeling guilty is a waste of time. If somebody gets his feelings hurt all you have to do is say something about they momma to get their fighting spirit up again.
EC- Honestly, I don’t know when he is here under another name or if it is another poster beginning with UN. There have been numerous comments that could have been him lately. In other words, I dunno where Unc has been for sure.
I don’t think he left, at least I hope not….I like old Unc. What do you guys think?
Must have been Unc that put in that downer, dang Unc…….
I’m everywhere and nowhere. Just had a lot going on these last few weeks.
Been checking in daily and commenting here and there.
I guess if I had any feelings they’d look like Pacino sitting on the courthouse steps at the end of that circa late-seventies flick “Justice for All”.
UN- I knew you were around, have to admit I wondered why you had not posted a new article lately? Anything in the works?
Another one of my pups starts an internship this summer so I wanted to take advantage of a mid-march road trip. Plus getting things done before that and then, afterward, catching up. Sadly, after getting ready for all that, everyone had to go without me cuz I got tied down by local concerns. Story of my life. sigh.
Regardless, I haven’t had time to sort anything out in my mind, let alone sit down and write.
I have a title in mind for something next but I just need to find a way for it not to be suicidally depressing for the reader.
Then, this morning, I mentally made some connections about making connections. I saw something yesterday about intelligence being able to go multiple levels deep on certain subjects and it reminded me of a quote in the late seventies Superman movie (with Chris Reeves) whereby Lex Luther was played by Gene Hackman who said this:
And that got me to thinking how adults can see the big picture and children not so much. Same with the red-pilled and blue-pilled peoples.
Connections could be a nice segue from “movies in the mind”. After all, it’s all about connecting the dot’s ya know? But the people perish for lack of knowledge.
Something like that? Not sure. Time is my enemy currently. No time to think, let alone write. Hopefully, things will subside soon though…
Even when he’s short on time, Uncola waxes profound. Or maybe I’ve been reading too much shallow stuff from Yokes. The emmeffer spends years trying to convince everybody how superior whiggers be and then gets miffed about a supreme white pizza slur.
That sounds like an interesting outline for your article Unc. Looking forward to it, but as always I am not a “yes man”. 🙂
I shake my head whenever I read about a “tipping point” coming in the next ten to fifteen years with Social Security. Right now the Social Security Trust Fund contains only IOUs.
“In other words, this ‘fund’ is actually debt.” It’s empty now!
Furthermore, the oft-stated notion that retirees get far more than they paid into it ignores inflation. A 1980 dollar is worth between a few bucks (CPI) and several bucks (actual inflation) today, and future inflation or hyperinflation will erode the value of future SS checks. Plus they’ll be cutting back benefits and raising the retirement age soon. No one will get what they paid into it.
SS isn’t the problem. It’s Medicare and Medicaid, both horrifically underfunded and both on very near-term tracks to collide with reality.
SS goes broke, SSDI goes broke (already happened, technically), Medicare goes broke, Medicaid goes broke ….
…..
Where’s the “problem”?
If you got paid what you’re worth, you’d have to take a pay cut. – Doc Pangloss
FUUUUUCCCKKK MEEEEEE WITH A FUCKING CHAINSAWW!!!
This f*cking problem could have been solved (or at least greatly mitigated) about 15 or 20 years ago with an HONEST actuarial calculation and a f*cking spreadsheet …. Not that f*cking hard!!!
BUUUUUTTTTT, anytime anyone even remotely tried to address the problem, the Dems scare-mongered the blue-hairs (most of whom are probably dead or nearing their end) by saying that people were coming to take their $$$.
Nothing of the sort was in the cards … even the person wielding the spreadsheet back then would NOT have proposed taking benefits from then-current beneficiaries …
BUT NOOOOOOO … instead, after 15 years of the can being kicked down the road, we are staring down a loaded gun-barrel … Now (or soon), there will be NO CHOICE … People are going to be royally f*cked.
Would have loved to have been able to put away my tax and employer match (12.4%) of my salary directly into my own account????
What part of this monumental stupidity is a mystery?????
Was a simple problem with a simple solution???? Now, not so much.
Missed a * in the F*CKING CHAINSAW (and 2 W’s) … My apologies.
Change is needed….right? Now the problem. We have a government that can not change the delivery days so the Post Office can operate at break even. And we want to propose that these numb skulls can fix social security?
But hey, the PO is delivering amazon prime shit on Sundays.
My retirement plan looks eerily like a pitchfork. It will get used one way OR another.
“The Social Security system is expected to have enormous financial pressures placed on its back for the next two decades.
If nothing is done, in 2034 the clock will be ticking for this and other entitlement programs like Medicare.”
Social Security is not an entitlement program. I paid it in, under duress, and I want my money back.
The SSA rule book is ~20,000 pages and “entitled” is the term than means an eligible person has jumped through all the hurdles and will shortly be sucking the tit.
SS and Medicare are earned entitlements since the beneficiary has paid in through payroll deductions, as has the employer. It is all the unearned entitlements that need to be trimmed or revoked before any earned entitlement program gets compromised.
Meanwhile, Congress has lots of junkets planned and fancy dinners to attend.
A number of years ago, I walked home from a bar in Baltimore stumbling drunk. Passing a shady part of town not too far from the Inner Harbor, I got mugged. Black dude put a gun 6 inches from my nose and demanded my wallet, which I handed over just as quickly as my inebriated brain could process the situation. The next week was mostly just a pain in the ass of cancelling cards & getting a new driver’s license; but even after my bingeing there was still about $100 in that wallet.
I want my money back!
Sorry that black dude was an undercover IRS agent working overtime.
Who doesn’t know at this point SS is screwed? I’ve literally known since grade school. No joke- in 4th or 5th grade my teacher told us about this thing called Social Security and told us we would pay into it our entire lives, but never get any money out of it. She would get paid, but we would never see it. I never forgot that lesson. Can’t remember which teacher it was, but remember what she told me.
“we would pay into it” and “She would get paid, but we would never see it”
This is sometimes called theft.
Real pain in the SS system is baked into the cake. There will be no fix because the politicians are going to cover their own asses first. Sadly, the criminal congress critters and past presidents will not be held accountable for their criminality. I hope that no group of radical people starts hunting them and their families down .
Could have sworn I read a quote from FDR saying he knew it would fail, but it would fail long after he was gone.
Cliff and Gil- Remember when the Pentagon lost a couple TRILLION dollars? These maroons lose more money than we need to keep the SS ponzi going and they act as if it’s NO BIGGY. MIC sucks up 700 BILLION a year which is beyond ridiculous and yet the DC criminals tell granny to get ready for a 20/25% haircut in benefits.
Why don’t you join in complaining that all of the benny bucks/funny money is being spent in the wrong place?
The SS can will continue getting kicked down the road forever. Bandaids may be applied, but every time even that happens some group(s) will get shafted. TSHTF when the dollar goes to hell-you know, like when a loaf of bread costs $100 this week and $1,000 next week.
The illusion is that SS is “for the people” and will never fail them. Trillions down the rathole elsewhere just does not compute for most people.
“TSHTF when the dollar goes to hell-you know, like when a loaf of bread costs $100 this week and $1,000 next week.”
Exactly right! I anticipate this will happen within 10 years, at the latest.
Then comes the “replacement” fiat currency (probably crypto).
Then, worries about what the govt once stole in SS payments will seem a fond memory compared to what nearly everyone will lose.
The pain IS the system. The only fix is elimination. Luckily, we don’t need politicians to eliminate it, it will collapse of its own stupidity (i.e., the stupidity of the American people).
When I applied at 66, the room was full of minority mothers with kids that have Behavior, Mental and Emotional Disabilities (applying to collect SS). The liberals have turned SS into another Welfare Program. Return it to being a retirement program!
Ever wonder why there are so many attorneys who specialize in SS Disability?
It never was a “retirement program”. It was always redistribution of wealth (a.k.a. theft), and a pyramid scheme doomed to collapse.
People hate welfare (i.e., redistribution of wealth) unless they’re on the receiving end.
Besides which, SSDI and SS retirement benefits were two different programs. Those receiving disability were ostensibly not pulling from the same fund as retirement “beneficiaries”. SSDI went broke 3 years ago, and since then, both Retirement and Disability are paid from the same “fund”.
One problem is, there is no “fund”. They’re paid out of the general revenue.
Another problem is, there is no “general revenue”. Sure, they collect taxes; but they also defecit spend, and have little influence on what the Fed “prints”.
In other words, it’s all cooked books and monopoly money.
Turtles all the way down.
All well and good I suppose, but there’s not much point in worrying about social security in 15 years until we address the Medicare trust being empty in 3 or 4 years. Once that happens, we either cut benefits by 75% or so, of add about 800B or so the our already over a trillion a year deficits. Neither of those will work for long, and no one is even talking about. At this rate we will be completely fucked long before SS runs out.
hussein stole ~800 million from the Medicare trust to help pay for his “keep your doctor” lie. The goal is to bankrupt Medicare so a new-and significantly dumbed down plan-can replace it. The annual amount due to Medicare fraud would built plenty of wall.
“Benefits” should have been cut by 100% overnight, …. last night.
Any proposal that involves an additional 15% tax on wages >$400,000 won’t work. People won’t pay that. They’ll find work-arounds. Hell, people like real estate agents already create S Corps just so they can avoid “self-employment” (social security) tax on their income over the $40k they W2 themselves (which, in many cases, isn’t much).
Hilarious. Try to scare people about losing their social security benefits, then pitch gold sales to them. You people are worse shills than the MSM.
I’m sorry but can the “poster” needs to be more clear about the definition of the word, “entitlement”. I just took a look at one of my “paycheck” stubs and the letters, “FICA” stood out with associated numbers that imply I have paid into a pot that seems to be stealing from ME!
An “entitlement” is something you’re “entitled” to. Hope that clears things up.
No, seriously, it means you have a right to it.
Just as you have a right to life, liberty, and property. But, as MeatLoaf should have sung, “One Out of Three Ain’t Bad”. (unless you’re an infant in NY, where ‘None Out of Three’ is more likely)
The word ‘entitled’ became a buzzword in the 70’s. I was in line at the employment office when a white dude handed his application for benefits to the black lady behind the counter.
Do you want to apply for unemployment benefits? she asked.
Well, I’m entitled, he said.
Nobody is entitled, sir. she corrected.
https://tucson.com/news/local/using-stolen-id-mexican-man-now-collected-k-in-u/article_ed4414a8-56db-5606-9db1-7e59f2c0ef66.html