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I've read a lot of opinions from credible people who take opposite positions on every conceivable issue in regards to the economy. The state of the dollar as th

I've read a lot of opinions from credible people who take opposite positions on every conceivable issue in regards to the economy. The state of the dollar as the reserve currency for the world is just one of many examples. At a certain point it starts to feel like nobody really knows for sure, and they're largely just guessing. It's a weird feeling to understand that there's little that can be done, because so many of the issues we're dealing with were locked in carbonite many decades ago, e.g. Social Security unfunded liabilities. It's like a game of musical chairs, only there is only one chair left, but 27 people are still circling around it, and every few seconds another person shows up to play.

phkahler 4y ago
>> Social Security unfunded liabilities. Social Security isn't unfunded. The main issue there is that it invests the money in US treasury bonds. As those bonds mature they reinvest in new bonds. That's all find and dandy, but it creates a system where SS is constantly "buying" bonds and the treasury is constantly "paying" SS. This has historically looked like a flow of money from SS into the treasury. As the boomers retire, the net flow will have to reverse, meaning the treasury will have to pay back a bunch of money that it borrowed from the Social Security administration. That's fine, they have several trillion dollars invested. The big issue is that congress has made a habit of spending other peoples money and sees a huge hole in their budget because of this situation. Social Security is not an "entitlement" it's more like a contract and congress keeps wanting to default on their end of the deal. The amount a person gets from SS is not much more than their lifetime contributions - the average rate of return for an individual is very low, but that's not what the "problem" is.

phkahler 4y ago

>> Social Security unfunded liabilities. Social Security isn't unfunded. The main issue there is that it invests the money in US treasury bonds. As those bonds mature they reinvest in new bonds. That's all find and dandy, but it creates a system where SS is constantly "buying" bonds and the treasury is constantly "paying" SS. This has historically looked like a flow of money from SS into the treasury. As the boomers retire, the net flow will have to reverse, meaning the treasury will have to pay back a bunch of money that it borrowed from the Social Security administration. That's fine, they have several trillion dollars invested. The big issue is that congress has made a habit of spending other peoples money and sees a huge hole in their budget because of this situation. Social Security is not an "entitlement" it's more like a contract and congress keeps wanting to default on their end of the deal. The amount a person gets from SS is not much more than their lifetime contributions - the average rate of return for an individual is very low, but that's not what the "problem" is.