Some real truths about Social Security

[utgibbs]

There is a vault full of IOUs from Uncle Sam - surely they are worth something.


Also telling is gibbs repeated use of the term "pension" for SS. It is not a pension plan

That's fair enough (bold above). The notion of turning it into one though has been bantered quite a lot in this thread. And that's very telling as well.

And those IOUs have come from the corporate nanny state / Keynesian military complex.

 

[BigPapaVol]

That's fair enough (bold above). The notion of turning it into one though has been bantered quite a lot in this thread. And that's very telling as well.

And those IOUs have come from the corporate nanny state / Keynesian military complex.

Who is bantering around a pension plan. Most of that has been to refute your ridiculous claim that SS is somehow funded for the next 26 years, when it isn't funded at all. See, there is no principal balance to grow, so it is only funded to the extent that future Americans pay enough taxes to pay the growing pool of recipients.

 

[droski]

Trillions in shortfall do not come from providing pensions to our workers who have toiled for a lifetime. They have come from a Keynesian corporate nanny state / military complex.

i see so the 80% of your salary in retirement hasn't provided trillions of shortfalls nationwide? last time i checked your local city and state doesn't pay for our military.

 

[sjt18]

Should the government intervene with a single payer system, costs will go down dramatically (as will government. Think of the extra programs: Medicare, Medicaid, VA, etc.) We predict NHS system health care costs will increase at a much lower rate than our own, just to rub salt in the wound (no pun intended).

No single payer system close to the scale needed for our country has ever driven costs down and value up. Most depend on some form of rationing and strict behavioral controls.

You can keep saying it as many times as you want... but a single payer system would be about as stupid as anything we could do UNLESS it was a simple voucher system.

The biggest problem with the US healthcare system now is that the gov't already has a mountain of regulations and insures about 1/3 of the population.... in large measure by forcing the private system to carry them through price fixing for gov't supported patients.

Average Social Security check is $1,100 per month and more than 75% of the checks go to households earning less than $20,000 per annum / 90% going to households earning $40,000 per annum. They are going to those who need it most.

"Earning"? SSI limits how much a retiree can earn.

But to your point, no person able to work and under retirement age should be drawing full SSI benefits. Limits for earnings for those over retirement age should be loosened significantly. We need them in the work force.

We've already raised the age to receive benefits on a program that is absolutely self-funding for at least 26 more years. In what is a highly regressive tax scheme. The 75-year deficit projection is, wait for it, 0.6% of GDP. Do I need to quote the growth of the military / war budget since the end of the Cold War?

Hey mo, it is "supposed" to be "insurance"... not a tax.

Private pensions have largely collapsed in the interim; just to put the efficiency of government and the market into perspective.

That's interesting. I have worked for two private, non-union companies with significant pension plans.... fully funded.... not "collapsed" by union bosses and dirty left wing politicians.

SSI is a Ponzi scheme. It should be privatized so it is protected from politicians and so people can no long be manipulated by fear mongerers on the left about SSI.

It is health care and military expenditures which threaten to break the bank, not Social Security. These are the facts from the real world outside the backdoor.

Yeah... you know so much more than everyone else... as you peak out the backdoor into Alice's world.

Military expenditures are a necessity and constitutional mandate. Health care is HUGE problem primarily resulting from gov't involvement in the market and a lack of consumer influence. People are too shielded from the consequences of their choices... as is the market.

 

[utgibbs]

@sjt

What are these "strict behavior controls" of which you speak? Our own system rations at a FAR, FAR, FAR greater rate.

Health care, military expenses, and a wealth redistributing (upwards) tax code enacted by Reagan threaten to break the bank. Failure to address these points = budget which is simply a political showpiece.

 

[CSVol]

As an interesting aside:

I have read a few reports and commentaries saying that one way to "fix" SS is actually to lower the retirement age. If more jobs opened up to younger individuals, it would lower unemployment, thus increasing SS revenue. Unfortunately, I have yet to see any reports that have coupled this idea with the idea of privatizing SS, as I think that would be one easy way to sell the privatization of SS.

I actually posted this idea in another thread. In addition to the benefits you listed it would also add large numbers that would basically become consumers of goods and services further helping employment and the overall economy. Unfortunately, my data came from a bastion of liberal propaganda, Newsweek, and therefore dismissed.