Social Security - Excellent Articles

[NowISeetheLight]

I'm a big fan of the Peter G Peterson Foundation. Being fiscally conservative like I am I like real data and explanations of how things work. I get weekly emails from them about the debt/deficit situation and ideas for solving it.

Today I received an excellent email about social security. The first link was to an article about the pros and cons of raising the income limit (something I'm in favor of). It's a very honest article in that it describes it as basically a redistribution of wealth. That isn't a bad thing (at least it's honest). The program has helped eliminate a ton of elderly poverty.

https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2023/02/should-we-eliminate-the-social-security-tax-cap-here-are-the-pros-and-cons?utm_campaign=PGPF%20Newsletters&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=248279044&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8OwRZ0pS4S67RZerJE4Q7kBFM-r9XBlMVFBLnGF_2XLCerH6NUOwpHhdsUgOZsPaS6m1ta2ixPRBGKAIa9q2EsCDuYrA&utm_content=248279044&utm_source=hs_email

The article doesn't take a position, just lists the facts, has some nice graphs, it's informative. Then at the bottom there is a another link to more information about Social Security, how it works, how it's funded, how it got to this situation where it won't be able to pay full benefits in 2032. Some great pages of nice graphs, illustrations, explanations, I love having FACTS to look at.

https://www.pgpf.org/finding-solutions/retirement

Again, it doesn't take a position one way or another, but says SOMETHING should be done NOW instead of later.

I think with the recent reintroduction of the Sanders-Warren bill to save Social Security for the next 75 years this is a real winning position for the Democrats. I know Biden has been playing up SS and Medicare recently (finally) but more needs to be done. I read today also that the RepubQcans are feeding on each other and that this is one issue they DON'T agree on. I say exploit it!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2024-presidential-election-republicans-entitlement-reforms-ron-desantis-donald-trump-joe-biden/

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/donald-trump-ron-desantis-wheelchairs

[mopinko]

1. i'm personally against scrapping the cap.

i agree that it only rly fixes everything if we break the link between payments and benefits.
for a program that is perpetually on the chopping block, changing the fundamental nature of it, to an income redistribution system is asking for it to be nuked at some point.

this was teddy kennedy’s argument many years ago. this is not a new idea.
so many ppl who would never accept welfare cash their ss checks w pride. i think it would be a crime to change that. maybe fewer ppl feel that way these days.
but i honestly dont know how you defend against cuts when you can no longer say- it’s my money, and only my money.

extend it to capital gains and other forms of income instead.

[NowISeetheLight]

2. Imagine if...

Imagine if people, once they received what they paid in plus the 2% interest (or whatever treasuries pay) converted to “welfare checks”. They’d get the same amount, but get a monthly or yearly “welfare statement”. I think a lot of people would be surprised.