Social Security Is Still Pretty Secure

Ted

FYI: Welp, here we go: According to the latest Social Security Trustees Report, out today, benefit payments will exceed receipts this year, forcing the program to draw from the trust fund for the first time since 1982. The trustees’ number-crunchers anticipate the trust will be empty by 2034, a year sooner than last year’s report projected, forcing widespread benefits cuts (and presumably the end of American civilization as we know it). Before you sound the alarm, however, we think it is worthwhile to look back at 1982 in detail. The history surrounding Social Security’s “crisis” then, in our view, shows why fears of its demise are likely far-fetched today.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.fisherinvestments.com/en-us/marketminder/social-security-is-still-pretty-secure

Sven

Also worthwhile to read the following article.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/5-dangerous-myths-about-social-security/ar-AAynZ1r

Old_Joe

@Sven- Thanks- that article sums up the situation rather nicely. A problem though, is that some individuals, including even some here on MFO where you would expect better, simply refuse to acknowledge such information. It's like trying to reason with a brick wall.

VintageFreak

Shouldn't those spreading misinformation be jailed? Freedom of expression not equal to freedom to lie right?

LewisBraham

@VintageFreak That would be a very dangerous slippery slope given that the current political administration has a very different definition of misinformation from people who were taught at a young age not to lie. The question becomes whose "fake news" to punish.

Old_Joe

"Shouldn't those spreading misinformation be jailed?"

Good grief! Trumpology filtering down among us.

davidrmoran

>> Freedom of expression not equal to freedom to lie, right?

Sure it is. That's the problem. Where you been at?

BrianW

Fisher Investments sends me a flier at least once a quarter. I'm glad I avoided them because they're full of crap. Saying SS is pretty secure is like saying you can still digest food while taking Prilosec. The truth is a putrefying heap of irony, and death begins in the colon.

Anna

OK, Time to play the SS Game from the American Academy of Actuaries:
http://socialsecuritygame.actuary.org/#make-your-choice-now

(If you feel you need more background on the game, start here instead:
http://www.actuary.org/content/try-your-hand-social-security-reform
)

Old_Joe

I wonder what it is that's so hard to understand, or leads people to totally dismiss information sources such as Sven's link, above? The information available from that link is widely available from many other sources as well, and has been discussed for years here on MFO and many other places. Evidently a certain type of mentality just shuts down receiving information once they have come to their own conclusions, right or wrong. Trumpology, I guess.

Sven

@Old_Joe, You are welcome. Graying of Japan should be a reminding to the rest of the developed countries. They are having heavy financial burden supporting their retirees. Either they raise the income tax, radical change their immigration policy (highly unlikely) and doing both. US is in better situation with more open immigration policy, but this is changing for the worse.

Besides social security, the cost of medical care is even a bigger issue, and that is another topic.

Old_Joe

@Sven- for sure, and thanks for your posts.

BrianW

The fact that SS could in some way be dependent on an immigration policy reflects the idiocy of its design.

Old_Joe

Unless you're a Native American Indian your families were immigrants too, just like mine.

BrianW

@Old_Joe: the problem with Liberals is you fail to see things through. My comment concerning SS's design was towards its flawed design. But since you brought it up, Liberals want to import more immigrants to shore up Social Security and perhaps to add more non-Americans to possibly outnumber those pesky Republicans. The irony there is, adding more immigrants makes it even more problematic to provide universal health care (another marxist love child of the left). More people means more draining of resources (all resources). And health care will always be a problem since you can't control what people put in their mouth. You also can't fix it because an MDs choice of treatment often makes you worse, resulting in us being pharmaceutical cows for life.

VintageFreak

The problem we have is labeling people. There are certain lables - like A**hole - that does not discriminate. More importantly it keeps conversation growing.

Labels like "Liberal", "Conservative", "Communist", applied to INDIVIDUALs by OTHER INDIVIDUALS makes it impossible to receive information on any other than ONE frequency.

A) If I want to increase taxes on the rich who got rich on the backs of the working class, I'm liberal and I'm a communist.

B) If I want to destroy the public school system because I want to turn a profit with Charter schools and don't give too hoots about education itself, I'm a conservative and I'm a capitalist.

No.

A) is human
B) needs to find his own planet.

BrianW

Take out the label if you like. And, you're probably correct that it doesn't help with civil discourse. Then again, people on here, just like in life, are only interested in the appearance of civility. Either something works or it doesn't; life is very binary that way and your wants have nothing to do with your needs. So, does your ideology/life focus on wants or needs? If you're more concerned with what you want, you're living a delusional glutinous existence which is doomed to fail (Retirement, health care, immigration, etc). If you are focused on needs, perhaps you can see the truth. Its the 'red vs blue' pill thing.

LewisBraham

@BrianW If one has Celiac disease, can one still live a "glutinous existence?" Are the gluten free the only ones who can take the red pill and is the blue pill full of carbs? I tend to like more colors. My world is full of rainbow-colored pills and Jelly Bellies and not based on schlock two-dimensional "binary" sci-fi films. In it people are multi-dimensional and decisions are not always either/or. There is often a third, fourth or even fifth path. In fact, some might say the potential paths are infinite.

BrianW

@LewisBraham: the blue pill is full of carbs. If you take care of those who can help themselves first, then you help address those who can't help themselves.

BrianW

The best answer for health care, is to not need it. The best way to not need it is to control what you put in your mouth. How about this: I would legalize marijuana and tax sugar and other carbs like they do with tobacco. I would then funnel the tax from the new sin tax back into health care.

Derf

Didn't a state or two put a tax on soda (pop) ?

Derf

BrianW

@Derf:

Berkeley, California.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
San Francisco, California.
Oakland, California.
Albany, California.
Boulder, Colorado.
Cook County, Illinois.
Portland, Oregon.

LewisBraham

Conservatives might want to blame these higher costs all on soda pop except for the fact that's utter nonsense.

BrianW

Let's be clear, my target is sugar. Soda is one minute part of it. And if you could get off your liberal soap box to think about it, you may agree.

BrianW

I would suspect, most conservatives would NOT agree with me (especially legalizing MJ). But, I'm ok with that.

davidrmoran

Actual conservatives would not concur in a lot of what you post.

>> The best answer for health care, is to not need it. The best way to not need it is to control what you put in your mouth.

I wonder if conservatives real or fake have better health than the general population? Hmm, maybe I should google.

Or do they get sick less often, or experience less trauma.

>> Liberals want to import more immigrants to shore up Social Security and perhaps to add more non-Americans to possibly outnumber those pesky Republicans. The irony there is, adding more immigrants makes it even more problematic to provide universal health care (another marxist love child of the left). ... You also can't fix [HC] because an MDs choice of treatment often makes you worse, resulting in us being pharmaceutical cows for life.

That is the best thing I have read all day: import immigrants, marxist lovechild, pharma cows. You should go be a writer on some libertarian sites. Not sure libertarian is even the right word here, actually.

>> The fact that SS could in some way be dependent on an immigration policy reflects the idiocy of its design.

It has always been the case that such programs are fully bound up with population, birthrate, and/or immigration. You do understand how it all works, right?