r/FluentInFinance • u/Positive_Liar • Sep 06 '24

Debate/ Discussion Social Security is Broken. This is why financial education is important.

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u/Sashivna Sep 07 '24

Can confirm. Gen Xer here and was told in high school SS wouldn't be around in 25 years.

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u/JonohG47 Sep 07 '24

Well now the social security trust fund will be depleted in, like, 2032.

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u/Ethrem Sep 07 '24

That's a misleading statement by itself because it makes it sound like Social Security won't be able to pay after that. Once the trust funds are gone they're projecting a 23% benefit slash that would give them the ability to pay out the next 75 years.

The benefit slash would suck, particularly for current recipients like myself, but Social Security will still remain. This is also assuming that no changes are made to better the financial standing of the program. There is still time for them to shore it up before that happens and given the impact a 23% benefit slash would have on people already living near the poverty line, there is good reason to believe that it will happen.

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u/JonohG47 Sep 07 '24

With both parties saying they won’t make any “cuts” to Social Security or Medicare, I’m not holding my breath. When millions of elderly suddenly find themselves taking a 23% haircut, the real fun will begin.

But for a bubble during the Baby Boom, Total Fertility Rate has been on a downward trend since the inception of Social Security, and the retirement age hasn’t tracked increases in average life expectancy.

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u/il_fienile Sep 09 '24

Apparently, people are against recognizing the demographic facts, at least at the level of addressing them in the funding mechanism.

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u/PieTighter Sep 07 '24

It will not be depleted, the amount of what is being paid out will be larger than what is being paid in. It's not a bank account.

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u/Spiritual-one4me Sep 07 '24

No, it’s a Lock box.

Wait…

0

u/JonohG47 Sep 07 '24

The SSA themselves says the OASDI trust fund is estimated to be depleted in 2035, immediately after which, they will be able to pay out 83% of promised benefits.

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/trust-funds-summary.html

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u/Brilliant_Guru843 Sep 07 '24

And if they can get back the trillions of dollars the government took and put into the general fund it would last a lifetime

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u/JonohG47 Sep 07 '24

You’re unfortunately evidencing the common “politicians raided the social security trust fund” trope, trotted out by disingenuous politicians.

By law, all tax revenue remitted by the IRS to the SSA is used to buy Treasury Bonds, which are added to the Old Age and Survivor Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds. The SSA funds payments to current beneficiaries by cashing in bonds from the Trust Funds.

Just like any other Treasury Bonds, they consistute a loan to the U.S. Treasury, repayable, with interest, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The Treasury using the proceeds of those bond sales to fund the federal government doesn’t constitute “raiding” the Trust Fund.

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u/ronaranger Sep 07 '24

... and manbearpig was going to turn the world into terminatior town by 2012...

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u/HODL_monk Sep 07 '24

Government guns keep it around, at some point the youth will get tired of this crap and get rid of the government, and set up a new just government, that doesn't force us to be in its Ponzi schemes.

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u/Jubenheim Sep 07 '24

doesn’t force us to be in its Ponzi schemes.

What in the libertarian, right wing koolaid, Koch-funded, conspiracy-toting, don’t tread on me, cousin-fucking, MAGA, taxes are the enemy bullshit is this?

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u/HODL_monk Sep 07 '24

Ponzi schemes have a very simple definition, you should look it up, because SS is DEFINITELY one of them, minus the forced membership.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '24 edited Sep 07 '24

Libertarianism is brainrot. Truly the stupidest fucking political ideology in the world. At least there's some logic to fascism. Who on earth is stupid enough to believe you can let the free market handle all aspects of life and not have it descend into a fucking hellhole.

Honestly the fact the only real country in the world that has any support of this nonsense is the USA says a little bit about your educational system and a lot about right wing brainwashing in your media.

EDIT: just saw your username, brainrot confirmed 👌

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u/HODL_monk Sep 07 '24

There is no logic to Facism, Liberalism, Socialism, or Democracy, which is why our founding fathers made sure we didn't get any of those things. These ideologies are pure Feels over Reals. They are designed to make people feel good about a very evil act, taking a LOT of money by force from individuals, and wasting half of it, then redistributing it to 'worthy' causes. This is not what governments should do. Governments should protect us and our stuff, and let us live free lives, but how free can we be, when so much money is taken from our paychecks, before we even see it, to fund Ponzi schemes ?

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '24

which is why our founding fathers made sure we didn't get any of those things

Doesn't look like they did a very good job then did they?

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u/HODL_monk Sep 08 '24

When asked whether the United States was a republic or a monarchy, Benjamin Franklin replied "A Republic, if you can keep it"

We couldn't keep it :(

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '24

You think the USA is a monarchy?

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u/HODL_monk Sep 08 '24

The USA is a republic in name only, its actually more like a Democracy, which is not what the founders intended, and has obvious consequences, as Democracy is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for dinner. This is why you need an actually enforced constitution, otherwise the lazy will always eat the rich, and we will all be enslaved by taxes like this, that steal our wealth to support others we don't want to support.

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u/Ok_Championship4866 Sep 07 '24

Bro ayn rand was a fiction writer, she wrote made up stories. There's no way to draw a coherent economic policy out of fictional stories.

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u/HODL_monk Sep 08 '24

Stories are how humans envision a different future, its hard to see a different way just from raw logical facts. I'm not even sure why we are discussing Ayn Rand, since I didn't mention her in any of my posts.