I’m constantly reminded that if we ran our personal finances like the Federal Government runs our country’s finances, we’d be doing time in a federal penetentiary

It is way past time for BOTH parties to bring some financial sense into this.  The problem is it always easier to raise taxes than to cut spending.  No politician ever lost an election spending other peoples money.

Who will be the first congressman to introduce legislation to slash payments? Who will be the first to suggest that with Americans living and working longer, the eligibility age should be bumped up significantly and right away?

Lawmakers on the left, though, would be happy to raise taxes to keep Social Security solvent, particularly taxes on the “rich” Americans they habitually demonize.

The compromise is too obvious (apologies to Ben Bernanke): monetize the national debt, as needed.

Years ago a relative of mine was righteously outraged by my statement that there is no trust fund.  I was right, of course.

They’ll raise the tax by eliminating the upper income cap for it and instead capping benefits.  In my opinion it ought to be need-based anyhow rather than one-size-fits-all.  Ditto for Medicare.

The Weimar government in Germany chose inflation to deal with the reparations problem and the world got Hitler.  What will we get?

Re # 5
Tom,

The Weimar government in Germany chose inflation to deal with the reparations problem and the world got Hitler.  What will we get?

My guess and great fear is Sarah Palin.

In my opinion, it has been one gigantic theft of my money since I started working at age 14.

It should have been set up so that a portion would be a private account that was actually owned by the participant and transferrible to heirs, and another portion would be a disability insurance.  This should never have been a transfer of wealth and it should never have been a ponzi scheme.

If it crashes, millions of us will finally be free from this money pit that has stolen our money. 

As I have said before, they should take the donations of each individual that contributed, add CPI-U for “interest”, deduct any distributions given to that individual to date, and reimburse the rest…declaring the truth, that the system is insolvent.  Many will have to return to work…just as the rest of us continue to work…because they did not save enough to retire on.  Those that truely cannot work could be added to the Welfare rolls.  But they can’t even do that.

The money is gone.  It isn’t there.  There aren’t enough workers to sustain the system as it is.  We simply cannot afford the $36 Trillion.  We don’t have it.  We cannot earn it in our lifetimes.  It isn’t a matter of “want to” or “don’t want to”.  It simply isn’t possible.

The current national debt load per individual worker in the US is somewhere between $60K and $100K each at a national debt of $12.58Trillion…before we add on the $36T of Social Security and Medicare “owed”.  The added amount would equal between $171.7K to $286K per worker in additional national debt load.  The median US income in 2004 was about $44K.  It doesn’t take a genius to do the math.  With everyone working, we could not even afford the interest on the Social Security and Medicare debt.  We don’t have it, we cannot get it, and we couldn’t pay the interest on it if we could get it.

If the Fed monitizes the debt, foreign investors will stop buying our debts and we will experience both hyperinflation and the loss of available external credit…we won’t be able to import things.  Not only that, because we are the world’s reserve currency, I think it likely that the entire global system of fiat money will collapse.  Then, the Social Security crowd still get nothing.

I don’t see any way out of this.  The system is bust.

Here, take a look at this:
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Now, tell me that we can pay the additional $36,000,000,000,000 for Social Security and Medicare on a per family income of about $61,869.  The total population is about 308 million people, but only about 109 million are working and paying taxes.  So, we are already at a place that about 1 person is working for each 2 people not working.  The numbers just don’t add up.

I really don’t think that we can, but if you have a solution, there are millions of folks that would love to know.

One can only hope that folks who are going to pay increased taxes for “health care” for the next several years, and then have all those wonderful benefits “kick in”, will find a few cents left of all the money paid in.. This is one of the reasons for pushing so hard, raise taxes, saying its for “health care”, while siphoning it off to pay off the enormous debt. 

One giant theft should have been enough, but no one seems to learn from history..
Grandmother

This was the last comment in the comment section of the article.  It was so good and so sad and so terrible that I thought it should be posted here so everyone can read it too.

Posted By: allenwsmithphd(10) on 3/15/2010 | 8:49 PM ET
The Social Security Scam I have been trying to expose the Social Security scam for more than a decade, but nobody would listen. I appeared on CNN Today, with anchor Lou Waters, on September 27, 2000 to discuss my then newly published book, “The Alleged Budget Surplus, Social Security, and Voodoo Economics.” I tried to convince Waters that the government was spending Social Security money on other government programs. He just looked at me in disbelief and asked, “Are you a voice crying in the wilderness?” As it turned out I was a voice crying in the wilderness in 2000, and I have continued to be such a voice ever since. During that ten-year period, I have published four books on Social Security, the latest being “THE BIG LIE: How Our Government Hoodwinked the Public, Emptied the Social Security Trust Fund, and caused The Great Economic Collapse.” In addition, I have appeared on The Dolans (CNNfn), on CNBC, and on more than 170 radio talk shows in my crusade to expose the scam. I made extensive efforts in 2000 to persuade Al Gore to break ranks with Bill Clinton and pledge to end the raiding of the trust fund. I have been outraged ever since I stumbled onto the scam more than ten years ago, and I have wanted to tell the whole world so everybody would be outraged. The fact that our government has “borrowed,” “embezzled,” or “stolen” $2.5 trillion of workers’ contributions to Social Security has to be “the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people by their government.” Like Harry Markopolis, who unsuccessfully tried to expose Bernie Madoff for nine years, I have been trying to expose the Social Security scam for more than a decade, but nobody would believe me. I urge everyone who cares about the future of Social Security to visit my website at http://www.thebiglie.net and learn the rest of the story. Allen W. Smith, Ph.D. Professor of Economics Emeritus Eastern Illinois University

Demonizing some of the rich is all too easy.  After all, they were busy betting other people’s money and then got us to pay them when they lost their bets.  The system is rigged for the wealthy.  Meanwhile, most middle class people have seen their wages stagnate over the last 30 years. 

But the plain fact is that the money should not have been spent.  We can’t have two wars, a legal system, public education, and all that for free.  Instead, we pay less, get mediocrity, and complain.  When a sewage pipe breaks, people think it should be for free.

I’d like to point out that its these guys who would probably take social security and then invest it in credit default swaps, lining their own pockets.

Re: Katherine #6
Are you proposing that we change the rules after the game has started and tell those people who saved on their own for retirement that they won’t get the Social Security payments they otherwise would have because they don’t “need” it as much as those who spent every dime they earned and didn’t save anything?

Just so you know, Social Security payments are already means tested, after a fashion.  If your income is above a certain threshold, your Social Security payments are included in your taxable income up to 85% of the amount paid to you.  You already paid tax on the income when it was taken out of your paycheck and “credited” to your Social Security income and now you are paying tax on the same dollars again.  So those evil savers who are taking Social Security payments away from those who really “need” it are actually paying taxes twice on the same dollar they earned.  You just gotta love the slime buckets we keep electing to Congress.

Daniel, I’m not “proposing” it, I’m saying that’s probably what they’re going to do.  They’ll have to; the system is broke.  My husband and I are among the people who aren’t ever going to get our money’s worth out of the system.  We are evil, you see, under-spent our income for years, accumulated extra savings, and won’t “need” SS to get along.  We did this deliberately because we’ve thought for years that they’ll take it away.

I turned 62 in May of 2007.  In that same month, I wrote a letter to the HHS Secretary (which was shuttled down the stairs to a deputy deputy assistant) in which I asked them to refrain from paying social security benefits to me—I told them they couldn’t afford it, I reminded them that they KNEW they couldn’t afford it, and they should prepare to ‘fess’ up and do what had to be done, and soon.  The response?  I got an 8% raise within 6 months on my monthly benefit. 
It may well be time for pitchforks and torches.

Typical ponzi scheme. There is no money to pay what they “Promised” me. But…it is just a promise, they have not said that it is guaranteed. Same with Medicare, Medicaid. So, why do some even start to believe there will be money for a National Health Care program? There won’t be. Hence—-rationing. First Social Security will be rationed. Then healthcare. Taxes are going to go through the roof. And the funny thing is——the tax receipts will be LOWER.

We are in a real pickle here. Do not fail to realize this. The Fed has done all it can do to stimulate the economy. The only way to get out of the mess with SS, etc, is to have hyper-inflation. The only way to have inflation is to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. And they aren’t cutting taxes—they are raising taxes.

So—the economy will fall. You ain’t seen nothing yet. For obama to completely take control, he will cause the mother of all financial, fiscal, disasters of all time.

bl

To pay for these middle-class and upper-class entitlements in the coming years will require unprecedented levels of deficit spending. According to the Financial Report of the United States, the amount of debt Americans expect to pay for these commitments is $56.4 trillion—$184,000 per American citizen.[2] This is an unsustainable level of debt sure to slow the economy and could force high rates of taxation in the future. The high costs of these programs, which will be shouldered by the children and grandchildren of baby boomers, could lead to further increases in dependency of future generations who would be more likely to depend on welfare during a slow economy, for instance. This snowballing of dependency—caused by Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—could send the country past a tipping point of sustainable dependency that could endanger the functioning of democracy itself.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/03/The 2009 Index of Dependence on Government

The reslults of Democat sponsored welfare oriented socialist country:
For the last four decades, the unwed birth rate has been rising steadily, from 5.3 percent in 1960, to 39.7 percent in 2007.[26] Among African-Americans, 71.6 percent of all children born are to unmarried parents, and 51.3 percent among Hispanics. Although the pace of growth in the proportions of births to unmarried women slowed in the immediate years after welfare reform, in more recent years it has risen rapidly. From 2002 to 2007, the number of non-marital births increased by 26 percent. Today, nearly four children in ten are born outside of marriage. Whereas in 1970, one-half of all out-of-wedlock births were to teens, in 2007, teen non-marital births comprise only 23 percent of such births, and the majority (60 percent) of out-of-wedlock births occur to women in their twenties. In fact, since 1995, birth rates for unmarried teens, particularly younger teens, have generally declined. In contrast, birth rates for unmarried adult women have risen, especially since 2002.[27]

For the last four decades, the unwed birth rate has been rising steadily, from 5.3 percent in 1960, to 39.7 percent in 2007.[26] Among African-Americans, 71.6 percent of all children born are to unmarried parents, and 51.3 percent among Hispanics. Although the pace of growth in the proportions of births to unmarried women slowed in the immediate years after welfare reform, in more recent years it has risen rapidly. From 2002 to 2007, the number of non-marital births increased by 26 percent. Today, nearly four children in ten are born outside of marriage. Whereas in 1970, one-half of all out-of-wedlock births were to teens, in 2007, teen non-marital births comprise only 23 percent of such births, and the majority (60 percent) of out-of-wedlock births occur to women in their twenties. In fact, since 1995, birth rates for unmarried teens, particularly younger teens, have generally declined. In contrast, birth rates for unmarried adult women have risen, especially since 2002.[27]