Social Security fix

[delhalew]

I can't fathom how so many people get wound up at the mention of SS reform. This does not have to be a disaster. My parents rely on this program to make it. I know what is at stake. By now everyone should know that raising the retirement age and other band-aids are laughable.

I have an idea that I heard echoed by one member of the media that few people hear.
I don't want to say who, because folks will Google this person and spend more time on political hackery than discussion. I suppose to expect any real discussion makes me an idealist, but ...oh well.

I was willing to say, "**** it. I am willing to write off the money I have paid into SS".
Being under forty, that is a lot of money, but it's not as if I am ten years from retirement. I just want SS to go away.

This is better. Every retired person or person near retirement will receive their SS.
Every person not yet paying in will never pay in. Those of us who have been paying for yrs, but still have time to plan for retirement, will receive refunds in the form of TAX CREDITS.

In preemption of one argument, liquidity...Yes. There will be shortfall on paying out to Seniors. Yes. This will become deficit and then debt. So what. Were are we headed? How much worse will this get every day?

I think it is viable. Now tell me why I am a fool. Hopefully related to this, and not because I smell, and my momma dresses me funny.

[bigfatjerk]

The thing about social security is that it was never made to be something for all that are going to retire. That's what we need to find a way to change. I think we need to allow for a private social security type system to compete with the current one. That way the people that are rich enough will just go to that social security system. The government's system can basically be for those that are too poor. This is really what we should do with health care too. Treat it like a product not like something everyone gets.

I don't really like the argument that "I put in money so I should get something back" well that's what you pay for with entitlements. Look at welfare and healthcare really. I doubt you are getting back all you paid for those services. And in reality in social security you probably won't get most of what you paid for in that system either. In an entitlement type system you shouldn't expect as much back. It just never works that way.

[KantoSooner]

To me, the best system I've seen is in Singapore. You have withholding of X%, your employer matches it. It's held in an account under your name, is inheritable and can be used for family emergencies, education and a primary residence and can be invested in a narrow list of securities if you wish to take the risk/reap the reward of higher returns. Everybody has something to retire on, the government doesn't have a tempting stack of cash belonging to 'no one' and the nation gets an enormous pool of investment capital.

To transition, we'd have to spend a generation or more weaning ourselves off of pay-as-you-go; but in the end we'd all be much better off.

[SCOUT]

Galveston County did a pretty good job
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion...alveston_x.htm

[Bourbon St Sooner]

To me, the best system I've seen is in Singapore. You have withholding of X%, your employer matches it. It's held in an account under your name, is inheritable and can be used for family emergencies, education and a primary residence and can be invested in a narrow list of securities if you wish to take the risk/reap the reward of higher returns. Everybody has something to retire on, the government doesn't have a tempting stack of cash belonging to 'no one' and the nation gets an enormous pool of investment capital.

To transition, we'd have to spend a generation or more weaning ourselves off of pay-as-you-go; but in the end we'd all be much better off.

This makes too much sense. It was proposed by Bush and demogogued as "privatization" and "a payoff to Wall Street." It's basically a non-starter now so our only option is to raise the retirement age or cut benefits.

[NormanPride]

Too many people profit from bad ideas.

[yermom]

the problem with private companies is that they go away periodically

i think they shouldn't cap the tax for SS...

if my whole income is taxed for SS why shouldn't Mr. Fatcat's?

the problem with just ending it and not putting new people in is that it's the boomers that are going to kill SS. after that it's probably not quite as bad.

[DIB]

Release a deadly virus that only attacks old people. Problem solved.

[yermom]

Logan's Run, i'm telling you

[delhalew]

Did anyone read beyond the title?

[olevetonahill]

Hells bells Peeps "The Boomers aint gonna kill it . Whats Killing it is the ****in Pols, treating the income from SS as General fund monies and spending the **** out of it

To fix it, Let the ****in Feds borrow a few more trillion or what ever from China and Pay SS back what they have stolen , Then Get it out of the reach of ****in politicians.

Now heres ya another thot . See what kinda mess SS is after all these years? what ya think is gonna happen with the health care dealio?

[olevetonahill]

Or if ya really want it Fixed get rid of any and all Congressional retirement packages and Make them Only have SS to fall back on

[delhalew]

the problem with private companies is that they go away periodically

i think they shouldn't cap the tax for SS...

if my whole income is taxed for SS why shouldn't Mr. Fatcat's?

the problem with just ending it and not putting new people in is that it's the boomers that are going to kill SS. after that it's probably not quite as bad.

A loser is a loser. It will always be a loser.

I'm asking why my proposal will not work.

[mgsooner]

Social Security was never meant to be a retirement plan. It will eventually run dry, and those that haven't been saving will rightly suffer the consequences. Live within your means and SAVE. That simple.

[JohnnyMack]

Did anyone read beyond the title?

I caught the part where you smell.

[Ike]

the problem with private companies is that they go away periodically

i think they shouldn't cap the tax for SS...

if my whole income is taxed for SS why shouldn't Mr. Fatcat's?

the problem with just ending it and not putting new people in is that it's the boomers that are going to kill SS. after that it's probably not quite as bad.

The boomers are only going to kill SS because we took the surpluses we were running with SS when they were working full-force and gave it to the government to spend. The government then pretended that these surpluses were an endless cash-cow, and used them to increase spending and give tax cuts with no offsets. So now that the boomers are getting ready to retire, we are looking at an "oh ****" moment.

[delhalew]

The question is not if it's dying, or who killed it. The question is how best to put that mercy bullet in its head.

[yermom]

The boomers are only going to kill SS because we took the surpluses we were running with SS when they were working full-force and gave it to the government to spend. The government then pretended that these surpluses were an endless cash-cow, and used them to increase spending and give tax cuts with no offsets. So now that the boomers are getting ready to retire, we are looking at an "oh ****" moment.

well, that and there aren't as many people paying in as there used to be because the boomers and the boomers' kids didn't have as many kids as the boomers' parents did

[okie52]

the problem with private companies is that they go away periodically

i think they shouldn't cap the tax for SS...

if my whole income is taxed for SS why shouldn't Mr. Fatcat's?

the problem with just ending it and not putting new people in is that it's the boomers that are going to kill SS. after that it's probably not quite as bad.

Why should there be different distributions then? If Joe Peon pays in $10 why shouldn't he get the same paychecks as the guy that puts in $1,000,000?

[Ike]

well, that and there aren't as many people paying in as there used to be because the boomers and the boomers' kids didn't have as many kids as the boomers' parents did

Yeah, but we wouldn't be looking at the "oh ****" moment had we used the surplusses from baby boomer SS taxes to spend on policies that produce growth in excess of the interest that would be needed to pay out to the boomers.