Quote:
Originally Posted by cashflyer
This concept confuses me. People here on Pelican have made the argument that the SS trust is not something I pay into that I later collect out, but rather that I am paying for the current recipients and when I get old the workers then will be paying me.
So - how does it run out? Running out implies a volume of something that is depleted. Given the Pelican information, there is no bucket of money to run out of. The only way it runs out is if people quit paying.
|
The Soc Sec trust fund has turned into the world's largest
Ponzi scam. The original plan was that when you paid into the system, the gov't would put it aside and invest it so that it would grow while it waits for you to retire. Tax and spend policies combined with deficit spending
(I'll avoid the finger pointing as to who) came along and the fed started "borrowing" from the SS account. Once the boomers started retiring several things had happened:
-the fed didn't invest and the money is gone so now it has to come out of the budget. This was all fine and dandy when we could hide the deficit. This is the scam part.
-the number of people paying into the system dropped so there is not as much new cash coming into the system to hide the scam.
-people are living longer and whereas it was expected that retiring at 65 meant you collect for a few years but now people are collecting for 15-20 years.
SSI would be solvent if Congress didn't dip their hands in the cookie jar.