ianrandalstrock's Journal

The Social Security Asteroid of Doom
My ego says "Wow. Glenn Beck read my post of two days ago, and went on to write this CNN opinion piece." The rational part of my brain says "It's an issue that affects us all, that is (or should be) a campaign issue, and that isn't discussed enough." Whichever part of the brain is right, Beck's piece talks about the impending financial obligations Social Security is bringing down on us all (well, we US citizens).

Thought experiment: how much more money would you have in your pocket, and how much more of what you want would the government be able to do if there was no Social Security? When it was started, it was a surplus the government could borrow against. Very soon now, it will become a liability. Remember, your social security taxes are not being held for when you retire; they're going out almost instantly to someone who is already retired (or otherwise receiving social security payments). By the time you get around to retiring, if the Social Security system still works, the money you paid in will have long gone back out, and circulated through the economy who knows how many times. That small monthly check you'll be getting will be the taxes paid by people working at that time.

If Social Security can't be saved—if there must come a time when we say "No more. I'm sorry. It doesn't work any more"—then there will be a generation of people who are rightfully pissed off for having paid so much into the system and gotten nothing out. And they'll also be upset for having planned on using that money as some of their living expenses during their retirement, only to have no money there. It's probably going to happen, unless we start working on it now. Start reducing payments and increasing taxes to cover what's needed today. Start educating people that their Social Security checks will be smaller, and that they need to save more for retirement on their own. Start at the very least discussing what is commonly known as the third rail of politics. Maybe what we need is a President who comes to office and says "I don't intend to run for another term. I want to do the best job I can today, and I want to work with a Congress that cares more about doing its job than keeping its job." With that group of people maybe, maybe, they can rationally discuss Social Security and implement the changes necessary to wean us from it. Anyone willing to try?