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That's not how social security works. You're not supposed to get a positive return. You directly pay a basic income to retired people (minus administration cost

That's not how social security works. You're not supposed to get a positive return. You directly pay a basic income to retired people (minus administration costs). When you retire, workers pay a basic income to you.

dataflow 2y ago
I'm pretty sure they understand how social security works. You missed the point they were making.
- lern_too_spel 2y ago
  Asking for a positive return on social security is like asking for a positive return on welfare. The positive return comes from not having so many homeless old people all over the country. It's not a personal investment vehicle.
  - FredPret 2y ago
    It could be that OP expects Social Security to be kaput by the time he gets to be old. Looking at the population graph, that’s a valid concern. There’s a ton of boomers and a ton of millenials, but very few babies to pay for our retirement. (This phenomenon could invalidate even individual stock investment retirement plans as well. We need a future generation of workers, investors, entrepreneurs, consumers).
    - dataflow 2y ago
      > This phenomenon could invalidate even individual stock investment retirement plans as well. It has always baffled me how nobody ever takes this into account for investments.
SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
The issue is that, for me and anyone else who reaches retirement age after 2034, only about 80% of that basic income will be available. For reasons I'm not super clear on, this idea tends to get coded as a conspiracy theory in many circles, despite being uncontroversially true and widely reported on.
- lern_too_spel 2y ago
  That's a perennial Boogeyman. Policymakers have a wide array of tweaks they could make (from adjusting the cap to adjusting retirement age) at any time that could push that out by another century. https://www.epi.org/blog/a-record-share-of-earnings-was-not-subject-to-social-security-taxes-in-2021-inequalitys-undermining-of-social-security-has-accelerated/ https://www.epi.org/blog/a-record-share-of-earnings-was-not-...
bombcar 2y ago
This is how it works, but it is not how it was sold (and all the "work tracking" confuses people as to what it is doing).

dataflow 2y ago

I'm pretty sure they understand how social security works. You missed the point they were making.

lern_too_spel 2y ago
Asking for a positive return on social security is like asking for a positive return on welfare. The positive return comes from not having so many homeless old people all over the country. It's not a personal investment vehicle.
- FredPret 2y ago
  It could be that OP expects Social Security to be kaput by the time he gets to be old. Looking at the population graph, that’s a valid concern. There’s a ton of boomers and a ton of millenials, but very few babies to pay for our retirement. (This phenomenon could invalidate even individual stock investment retirement plans as well. We need a future generation of workers, investors, entrepreneurs, consumers).
  - dataflow 2y ago
    > This phenomenon could invalidate even individual stock investment retirement plans as well. It has always baffled me how nobody ever takes this into account for investments.

SpicyLemonZest 2y ago

The issue is that, for me and anyone else who reaches retirement age after 2034, only about 80% of that basic income will be available. For reasons I'm not super clear on, this idea tends to get coded as a conspiracy theory in many circles, despite being uncontroversially true and widely reported on.

lern_too_spel 2y ago
That's a perennial Boogeyman. Policymakers have a wide array of tweaks they could make (from adjusting the cap to adjusting retirement age) at any time that could push that out by another century. https://www.epi.org/blog/a-record-share-of-earnings-was-not-subject-to-social-security-taxes-in-2021-inequalitys-undermining-of-social-security-has-accelerated/ https://www.epi.org/blog/a-record-share-of-earnings-was-not-...

bombcar 2y ago

This is how it works, but it is not how it was sold (and all the "work tracking" confuses people as to what it is doing).