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What happens if social security is no longer there?

bryanlarsen 4y ago
It means you're listening to a false narrative propogated by "US is broke" doom-slingers. If your left hand owes money to your right hand, your left hand might be broke but you as a whole aren't.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  Your hands can move around all the money they want, the question is how much that money will buy. This is the issue countries with declining labor force participate rates are facing. Someone actually has to clean those bedpans and do all the dirty work.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    Exactly. It's the capacity of a country to do things that matters, not the number of pieces of paper it has that nominally count that capacity. Luckily there are still lots of people willing to move to America to clean bedpans.
toomuchtodo 4y ago
Social security pays out at 80% when the trust fund is exhausted in a decade. It’s then a policy change to increase benefits back to 100% (no cap in income exposed to SS taxes). Math might improve a bit with US treasuries paying almost 4%, as that is what the trust fund invests in (specifically special issue treasuries). > By the end of 2021, the trust funds had accumulated $2.9 trillion worth of Treasury securities, earning an average interest rate of 1.4 percent during that year. The Social Security Administration provides monthly reports on the investment holdings of the trust funds, their maturities, and interest rates. The trustees project that the trust funds will earn $64.6 billion in interest income in 2022. https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/understanding-the-social-security-trust-funds-0 https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/understanding-...
- albatross13 4y ago
  So sustainable that the government is looking to take a 'low' interest loan, bet it, and if that doesn't pan out well they'll just tax us more: https://www.businessinsider.com/sovereign-wealth-fund-biden-sanders-romney-warren-social-security-medicare-2023-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/sovereign-wealth-fund-biden-...
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    It’s sustainable so long as the US economy has productivity and activity to tax. Of course they’d tax everyone more, what else would you expect after all of that wealth in earlier decades was squandered. If you’re angry about it, be upset about past garbage governance and irresponsibility in not planning for the future by politicians. If you strip mine the economy in the past, you can’t be all surprise pikachu when the bill comes due in the future. Trillions of dollars on useless wars and tax cuts for the wealthy didn’t help.

It means you're listening to a false narrative propogated by "US is broke" doom-slingers. If your left hand owes money to your right hand, your left hand might be broke but you as a whole aren't.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
Your hands can move around all the money they want, the question is how much that money will buy. This is the issue countries with declining labor force participate rates are facing. Someone actually has to clean those bedpans and do all the dirty work.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  Exactly. It's the capacity of a country to do things that matters, not the number of pieces of paper it has that nominally count that capacity. Luckily there are still lots of people willing to move to America to clean bedpans.

toomuchtodo 4y ago

Social security pays out at 80% when the trust fund is exhausted in a decade. It’s then a policy change to increase benefits back to 100% (no cap in income exposed to SS taxes). Math might improve a bit with US treasuries paying almost 4%, as that is what the trust fund invests in (specifically special issue treasuries). > By the end of 2021, the trust funds had accumulated $2.9 trillion worth of Treasury securities, earning an average interest rate of 1.4 percent during that year. The Social Security Administration provides monthly reports on the investment holdings of the trust funds, their maturities, and interest rates. The trustees project that the trust funds will earn $64.6 billion in interest income in 2022. https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/understanding-the-social-security-trust-funds-0 https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/understanding-...

albatross13 4y ago
So sustainable that the government is looking to take a 'low' interest loan, bet it, and if that doesn't pan out well they'll just tax us more: https://www.businessinsider.com/sovereign-wealth-fund-biden-sanders-romney-warren-social-security-medicare-2023-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/sovereign-wealth-fund-biden-...
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  It’s sustainable so long as the US economy has productivity and activity to tax. Of course they’d tax everyone more, what else would you expect after all of that wealth in earlier decades was squandered. If you’re angry about it, be upset about past garbage governance and irresponsibility in not planning for the future by politicians. If you strip mine the economy in the past, you can’t be all surprise pikachu when the bill comes due in the future. Trillions of dollars on useless wars and tax cuts for the wealthy didn’t help.