Ahhh bullshit.
I knew waaaay back in the 80's that SoSec was going bankrupt and that the pretend "trust-fund" was broke and I wouldn't see a dime shaved out of my paychecks by the time I was ready to retire. It did not surprise me in the 90s when I learned SoSec receipts went into the General Fund and squandered into fathomless debt and that 83% of all my income would have to be taxed into SoSec JUST to keep benefits at 1990 levels as the Boomers retired and the number of workers it took to cover the benefits of just one recipient would exponentially increase. It's a Ponzi Scheme, just like the Pension fund debacles bankrupting cities and states across the country.
The government ALREADY ripped us all off having stolen every dime each one of us paid out of our incomes to provide those future benefits that will not be there much longer.
Simple economics.
I do not think this generation will tolerate 90% of their pay confiscated just to provide bennies for the generation that bankrupted it all.
A reckonin' is a commin'.
INVAR, you're right. The sad thing is, the Social Security system really could have been fixed painlessly 20 years ago. Now it will require sacrifices. And if we wait another 10-15 years, those sacrifices will be enormous.
The trend in the public sector has been to preserve the defined benefit system for existing workers while limiting new hires to matched savings vehicles (for the private sector, that train left the station years ago). There are advantages, to be sure, to the latter, especially if you die young - you can build wealth for your family. But if you live long, a savings account will be gone before you are. Social Security is, for most of us, the only vehicle that provides income security in old age. What's happening is a growing gap in expectations between folks of my age and older, and my kids and grandkids. The latter will never know the feeling of security in old age.
Having spent my career in the field of employee benefits, I've become convinced of the need to preserve Social Security, because employers don't offer any equivalent income security vehicle anymore. And employers, because of our changing world, are loathe to hire workers for the long haul. The crisis in the white working class is, plain and simple, due to the private sector's rational reaction to globalism and technology.
But Rubio's right - to save Social Security it will have to be restructured - and that means more revenues and less benefits, folks. No other way to do it. 20 years ago we seemed to have begun the necessary conversation, but now our eyes are glued back shut and we've returned to the mode of passing the buck, and passing it again, until our grandkids are left holding the bag.
One change I'd make is to eliminate automatic cost of living increases. Let such increases be enacted by Congress when it can summon the political will to do so. At least that will give some power to younger Americans to counter the most powerful lobby in the history of America - old folks who've gotten theirs and want to keep it, no matter how high the cost to the rest of us.
