Social Security is not going broke .. because it can't

Darla said:
SS is such an easy fix, it's nearly brainless. I really hate seeing this nonsense spouted, but I know there is a cottage industry devoted to spreading these myths. The real reason is that average people get more out of SS than they put in and it is in that way "redistributionist". It drives rich people and their apologists nuts.

SS will be there for you. It's mindless to fall for the propaganda, but I know some do. It only needs a few tweaks, it is no big deal. The big deal is health care spending, NOT social security.

Also, just so you know, you are not magicially going to live to 150 because all of a sudden, BOOM big rise in average life expectancy. You're going to die, and you will die at what we now consider to be a normal age. So get over that right now. Also, and this drives me more crazy than anything, any gains in live expectancy are being enjoyed by the elite, not by workers. You guys are allowing them to stack the deck. You're still going to die at the same age you would have died at decades ago. They will live a bit longer (though not to the 150 they dream of, sorry, no). They are using their longer life spans to convince you that you should break your ass working longer hours.

Here is the problem; if you are a manual laborer of any kind, if you do anything other than sit your ass in a nearly stress-free, high level office bound position, you are lucky if your body makes it to 60 at that pace. The pain gets worse, and you live with it every day. So many people are already falling through the cracks between 60 and 66, now you want to raise it to 70. It's such a cruel joke. Such a cruel cruel joke. Someday I suppose the worker will rebel and maybe some heads will be on pikes, but you guys can comfort yourselves with this; you'll always have tinfoil.
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APPLAUSE
 
Threedee said:
So, what should we do when life expectancy rises for every, despite Darla's insane rants? Get tinfoil? Execute scientists?
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My insane rants? You want to solve problems which don't yet exist, and I'm insane?

The Baby Boom generation can be looked at much like a boa constrictor swallowing, I don't know, something very large. We are right now and for the immediate future, stuck in the middle. But eventually that boa is going to digest this large object (they are going to fucking die). Though there will be a projected 2% of gdp increase in SS, it will level off after that. It is NOT going to keep growing. This mass hysteria over a program that has effectively kept millions of seniors out of poverty, is shameful.

The fix is easy. Chill the fuck out and start concentrating on health care costs, the real problem in this country. Of course to do that, we'd have to get ideological psychopaths to stop drooling with sexual excitement over the idea of old people suffering. You know, the takers. And that is not going to happen, cause that's how they're made. You know, that's like, their fetish. But it's easy - all the rest of us have to do is not blink.

Don't blink! SS fixed!

It's that easy.
 
The "easy fix, just needs a tweak" line is pretty much a myth. The tweak that SS needs is more & more revenue. Which means higher taxes. Which means more money from other programs.

And the only way to avoid a 25% cut in benefit payouts is - you guessed it - higher taxes, and more money from other programs.

SS is not paying for itself. It can't. People pay into it at a time when cost of living is less than it will be when they retire, and when they retire, there will be more people, who are all living longer. In a decade or 2, they'll be living a LOT longer.
 
You underestimate the stupidity of the public, Darla. Yes, the medical issue is infinitely more problematic, and yes, SS, is easily fixed. But you know we'll still fuck it up somehow.
 
Thing1 said:
The "easy fix, just needs a tweak" line is pretty much a myth. The tweak that SS needs is more & more revenue. Which means higher taxes. Which means more money from other programs.

And the only way to avoid a 25% cut in benefit payouts is - you guessed it - higher taxes, and more money from other programs.

SS is not paying for itself. It can't. People pay into it at a time when cost of living is less than it will be when they retire, and when they retire, there will be more people, who are all living longer. In a decade or 2, they'll be living a LOT longer.
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Sorry but this is wrong, and your radically increased life spans beginning in a decade, are something I've been hearing about since I was a kid. When it happens, we'll deal with it. I'm not into "fixing' problems that have not yet presented themselves.
 
Dungheap said:
Terrible idea. The reason why SS has such strng support is that everyone pays and everyone benefits. If you turn it into a program for the poors it ends up with limited support and would be dismantled.
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yet you also think that if they were to cut benefits to 75% that somehow the system would keep going?
 
Thing1 said:
The "easy fix, just needs a tweak" line is pretty much a myth. The tweak that SS needs is more & more revenue. Which means higher taxes. Which means more money from other programs.

And the only way to avoid a 25% cut in benefit payouts is - you guessed it - higher taxes, and more money from other programs.

SS is not paying for itself. It can't. People pay into it at a time when cost of living is less than it will be when they retire, and when they retire, there will be more people, who are all living longer. In a decade or 2, they'll be living a LOT longer.
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BTW Onceler, that 25% shortfall is not even definite, and cannot be since they are projected so far into the future. It may very well be much smaller. Further, when we faced this in the past, we did not make adjustments until the trust fund was already near exhausted. We are nowhere near that now. This is false hysteria.
 
Darla said:
Sorry but this is wrong, and your radically increased life spans beginning in a decade, are something I've been hearing about since I was a kid. When it happens, we'll deal with it. I'm not into "fixing' problems that have not yet presented themselves.
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I'm not trying to be confrontational on this, but the math for SS no longer works. Nothing I said is wrong - the tweaks you refer to all amount to one thing: we'll need more & more money to pay for payouts for an ever-increasing population that is living longer.

I'm just curious - what about privatization is so abhorrent, aside from the trite argument that it "fills the pockets of Wall Street fat cats?"
 
Darla said:
Not going to happen. You are really insidious because unlike the hysterical poor slob Tinfoil, you know damned well it's not happening, and you also know it's an easy fix.
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Yes, it is an easy fix.

Yes, it is unlikely to happen, but we were discussing what would happen IF it did get to that point.

Either pay attention or get back in the kitchen and make us some cookies.
 
Darla said:
BTW Onceler, that 25% shortfall is not even definite, and cannot be since they are projected so far into the future. It may very well be much smaller. Further, when we faced this in the past, we did not make adjustments until the trust fund was already near exhausted. We are nowhere near that now. This is false hysteria.
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1) It is definite they will need to cut if nothing else is done
2) Every year the projections get worse, not better. The longer unemployment stays high, the worse the projections will get. Given the lack of leadership out of DC on jobs, don't expect the unemployment number to cross under 6.5% anytime soon.
 
Superfreak said:
No, but you most certainly do. You are great at running around shouting 'that be terrible'... tell us... what would you do?
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Well, you're saying that we should cut benefits so we don't have to cut benefits and if we cut benfits it doesn't count as a benefit cut becuase we cut them. It makes no sense to me.

I've already told you what I'd do: raise taxes. Alternatively, if you want to generate higher returns then let the government invest in something other than special issue Treasuries.
 
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