Social Security — running out?
Hi Ms. Savage,
Is all the talk of Social Security being solvent for less than 20 years true? If so, how do our lawmakers make it solvent? I strikes me that rewarding the top wage earners in our country with a 6.2% pay raise after they have made about $102,000.00, , by no longer withholding is an easy place to begin.
Also the matching 6.2% that each business must contribute should help those coffers stay in the black.
Your thoughts?
Terry Says
There is little thought that something MUST be done to fix the actuarial imbalance in Social Security caused by longevity. And watching the political process, I doubt that anything will be done until the crisis is upon us. Taxing ALL earnings,not just up to a certain limit, is one of the proposed alternatives. Or delaying the age at which benefits are received. All would make a big difference if we started soon enough. But it will take some political guts –and the last person to have enough strength to attempt a fix was President Reagan.
Now that doesn’t mean you won’t get your benefits. It’s just that the system eventually won’t be able to pay the full promised benefits if something isn’t done soon. The assumption is that there will always be enough workers being paid –and paying INTO they system– to pay a portion of the benefits promised. (Unless everything is being done by robots at that point!) The other alternative is for the government to simply “print” (create) the money to pay the promised benefits. That’s just another word for inflation– meaning the money would buy less!
