CONTENTS See
The original intent
There are no assets to pay social security
The actual social security position
No, it's not a surplus, it's a deficit!!!!
Future taxpayers pay for others - what's the problem?
__________________________________________________________
WE ARE BEHIND ON SOCIAL SECURITY BY $17.5 TRILLION
Could this be simpler?! And the figure is provided from the government! See the Actual US Total Debt.
CBO: Social Security Will Run Out Of Money by 2037
Social Security Payouts Exceed Pay In - 2010 - 6 years earlier than expected
Social Security will post nearly $600 billion in deficits over the next decade
Some Ridiculous arguments about social security
THE ORIGINAL INTENT
We are required to pay into Social Security for what President Roosevelt viewed as providing "only a base upon which each one of our citizens may build his individual security through his own individual efforts.”
THERE ARE NO ASSETS TO PAY SOCIAL SECURITY
The idea is that future taxpayers will cover the current beneficiaries, kind of a robbing a future Peter to pay a current Paul (retiree). The money that has been paid in was, inappropriately, included as Revenue for the government, offsetting what would have actually been a deficit in many years. The Congress simply borrows all the money that comes in and spends it. That is a very bad political policy and creates a "lie" to the American people, when they consider your social security payments to be "spending- money", dipped into for their own purposes.
As social security taxes are less than social security payout, we must pay out the deficit by borrowing from the public and other countries. This is because there is no money in the social security trust fund and iou's cannot pay social security recipients. There is no surplus, actually. We can only borrow from someone who will give us money to spend on social security - and each dollar beyond taxes paid to social security recipients adds one dollar to our national debt.
THE ACTUAL SOCIAL SECURITY SITUATION
As in the box, there are unfunded liabilities as of 2008 of $6 trillion. That means that if this were a corporation it would owe $6 trillion (to $17.5 trillion) to its workers for their future retirements, except that it would be illegal for a corporation not to have put away into a separate fund enough to cover all of this.
This is a debt of the federal government, in my opinion, as the separate trust fund is short by $6 trillion dollars. The trust fund itself has assets of $2.6 trillion (source), all of which the federal government has borrowed, so the assets are all iou's from the government. In the government site that was the source of this there is no mention of moneys owed for all peoples' retirements, as they consider it to be funded from future social security taxes.
NO, IT'S NOT A TRUST FUND SURPLUS, IT'S A DEFICIT
Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid, and another politician (at least) said there is nothing to worry about, since we have a social security surplus. It is correct to say that there are assets in the trust fund (all iou's from the government). The assets are about $2.6 T, but the liability is $17.5 trillion. So we have a shortage of the necessary funding by at least $14.9 trillion.
We better send our representatives to basic math and accounting school. Perhaps we need people who understand such things.
FUTURE TAXPAYERS PAY FOR OTHERS - WHAT PROBLEM?
