However, a 2010 report written for the Senate Committee on Aging paints a different picture. …for workers who earned average wages and retired in 1980 at the age of 65, it took 2.8 years to recover the value of the retirement portion of the combined employee and employer shares of their Social Security taxes plus interest. For their counterparts who retired at the age of 65 in 2003, it will take 17.4 years. For those retiring in 2020, it will take 21.6 years. (pp 13-14) Remember the statistic shared above: the average male collects Social Security for 13 years, the average female for 17 years. So most recipients will not recoup all of their contributions plus interest, even as the program is constituted now. Reducing benefits or changing the method of benefit calculation will make this even worse. Still, as Bernie Sanders observes, Social Security can pay 100 percent of benefits owed for the next twenty years, and 75 percent of benefits after that. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has also stated that raising the earnings cap on the FICA tax will make Social Security solvent into the foreseeable future. One final fact about Social Security: In and of itself it does not add a single cent to the deficit. What has happened over the years is that a succession of congresses, controlled by both parties, have raided the Trust Fund for a variety of reasons, and now it largely consists of U.S. Treasury securities. Remember when George W. Bush called the Trust Fund ”just IOU’s?” Those were government bonds he was talking about. Since those bonds pay interest which has to be paid out of government revenue, that is how Social Security “adds to the deficit.” Congress caused the problem, and now they want you to pay for it. The above quotes paint a very accurate picture of Social Security. One of the BIG things that the article does not mention is that for the first time in my memory, the Trustees report said that the Trust fund will be able to pay 100% of benefits for the same amount of time as they said last year. Usually, the time limit gets shorter every year. This in itself is good news. The fund is at least stable for the first time, or the measurements are getting more accurate, take your pick. Read more: addictinginfo.org/2013/07/25/everyone-is-lying-to-you-about-social-security-here-is-the-truth/#ixzz2a94czzmX
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 10:21:05 +0000
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