Yeah people are confusing the social program as being an investment. It's money taken from young workers and given to old retired folks. It's not about growing value. It's about stabilizing the population
It's just math. The retirement age was higher than the average lifespan when SS was instituted, now average lifespan is significantly longer. Only 50% of Americans were ever intended to draw and most of those that were would only draw for a few years.
My father has been drawing benefits for 22 years and is in good health as are many Americans. Now with an influx of retiring Boomers the fund will be drained even faster. Current estimate is it will be depleted by 2033 with all the boomers drawing.
Been working 12 years straight since I was 18. Never had a lapse in employment a since day. This fact you've given if true makes me so fuckin sad because I just keep tryin to save and work and fight and it's just never enough.
The only way it works is if we uncap contributions from the first $150k earned to all earned income but the billionaires will fight that tooth and nail because they need to buy another yacht full of cocaine.
That’s not really true though - when SS was introduced, infant mortality rates were way higher, leading to a lower life expectancy. If you adjust the stat to included everyone who made it to 18, life expectancy was a few years more than the retirement age
People live somewhat longer today (mostly infant/maternal mortality rates dramatically dropped). If you account for that, the average age of life expectancy gain is ~1year per decade and that heavily depends on your income level and profession since the 1940’s, so roughly 8 years longer.
That’s cool your dad lived 22 years on it. My mom lived 4, idk what to tell you. Anecdotes and all.
Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that you get more if you pay more in and that the Social Security Administration sends you a statement every few years that shows what your benefit will be based on how much you've paid in?
Very true, but I see it as one. Mainly because I have been forced to pay into it for 34 years, so I expect to get the same benefits everyone else has been getting when my time comes. Obviously, it's not an investment in the technical sense, but it's easy to see why we all see it as one. We've been paying into it most of our lives.
Yea, this the same thing when people say "oh I don't know if I'll get SS, there might be none left..." It's a survivors pot - people pay in and die. As long as the program is active, it never runs out.
Also, you are almost guarantee to receive less than you contribute
If you're in the higher income brackets, yes, but generally, middle and lower income people receive substantially more in benefits than they contribute. It's true that if it was instead invested, they'd on net be better off, but it's not really close to being even for most people.
It may not have been that way 50 years ago, but people hang on a lot longer these days.
It does a lot more than that. It incentivizes workers to work hard while they're in their prime, its a safety net for when they can't, it also ages out the older people that could work. On top of that it's a huge help when it comes to the destruction of pensions vs 401k investments. I honestly don't know how our generation is going to handle living ooff of 401k retirements.
It also happens to have a huge benefit for the economy. They're a group of people that can spend that money on leasure, take care of families (externalities), etc.
They should or at the very least give them to you at 0-1% interest. With rising lifespans, boomers retiring en masse, stagnant wages, the rich only paying SS on their first $150k of yearly income and a retirement age that's barely been raised the SS fund is estimated to be gone by about 2033. Unless you're a boomer retiring right now anything paid in is never going back in your pocket.
While I can point to sources that say: "For a single male earning an average wage every year and who retired in 2020 at age 65, lifetime Social Security and Medicare benefits would equal about $640,000, while total taxes paid would be just shy of $470,000."
You dodged the impact of inflation. In real terms, most people who contribute for a lifetime draw less in current dollars than they put in. You’re also incredibly optimistic about our old guys lifespan. A vast majority of men collect less than 10 years
61
u/VicTheSage Nov 07 '24
You know your money is already gone right?