Can Social Security survive the Baby Boomer retirement?
461127
The one thing you are not factoring into your formula are the billions upon billions of investment dollars that the Boomers will soon be drawing out of retirement accounts. Most of that money will be taxable.\n\nBesides that fact, social security is not something guaranteed under the Constitution and should be done away with. The 10th Amendment states:\n\n"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."\n\nSocial security was an ill-thought out program rushed through Congress with FDR's New Deal. Many of the problems we face as a nation have their roots in the New Deal. Any governmental program that is based on open or enforced enrollment is doomed to fail at some point - the rolls just grow too large for the base to handle.\n\nWhat this country needs to do is teach people fiscal responsibility and how to prepare for their own retirement. PRIVATIZING social security is the first step. The program that was suggested was a mirror image of the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) available to every Federal government employee. I have two such accounts (one for my civilian job and one for my National Guard job), and BOTH accounts have grown by an average of 60% over the last two years. They do not allow people to invest in whatever they want - contrary to what the Democrats and liberals would have you believe. They consist of five very structured mutual funds based on market indexes. If it is good enough for the President and for Congress, it is good enough for me.\n\nPhasing it in - as was proposed - is the right answer, too. It allows people to keep receiving social security benefits but eventually weans people off of the government rolls.\n\nThe irony of liberals and Democrats not supporting privatized social security is this: They are the first ones that claim you cannot trust the government, yet they want the entire nation to trust the government with their retirement.
137684
Social Security will be "depleted" around 2055.  Right about the time I reach retirement age >:-|.  It's not really a question of being depleted as it's not actually payed out of funds that are saved up somewhere.  Rather it comes from the tax dollars of the current workforce.  Basically, you support your parents just as they supported their parents, and later your kids will support you, their kids will support them, and so on.  The problem is that people are retiring younger and living longer.  Right now we have the baby boomers supporting the smaller generation that preceeded them, but once the boomers hit retirement we'll have a lot more money going out than coming in.  We can fix this either by increasing the money going in (i.e. raising taxes) or decreasing the money going out (i.e. cutting benefits).
1092601
They do help old people. Ever hear of Social Security and Medicare.
220583
No, it is backed by the full faith of the United States government. Having said that, there is kind of a "bulge" of retirees starting right now, because the Baby Boom generation was so large.\n\nThis is going to cause a problem in making all the payments: either taxes are going to have to go up or benefits are going to have to go down and it will probably be a bit of either.\n\nAlready, they have raised the retirement age for young people from 65 to 70. It will probably go higher.\n\nThe real fiscal problem looming is Medicare, not Social Security, but no one wants to try and fix that problem.
700600
Check with the Social Security Administration.
1061057
In 10 years the markets will likely start to crash.  No kidding.   This is due to the 1974 ERISA act which transferred the onus of retirement from companies through defined benefit programs such as pensions to defined contribution programs such as 401(k).   The issue though is that while distributions can be taken from a 401(k) at age 59.5, distributions are REQUIRED to be taken from age 70.5.   The first of the baby boomer generation will be turning 70.5 around 2016 meaning they will be required to start selling holdings in their 401(k) plans to meet this requirement.   As more baby boomers hit that age, more will have to sell.  All of this selling without buying stepping in will cause the market to flop.    But wait...it gets worse.\n\nMost baby boomers are not properly prepared for retirement anyway.   Some think they will be because of the money they have in their 401(k) plan except as the stock market drops, the value of their holdings in the plan drops and may no longer be enough to sustain them in retirement.   As a result, they will find they have to cut back on many of the things they were used to for their lives like new cars, dining out, vacations and designer clothes.   Cutting back on all these things will cut into all of those businesses resulting in slowing sales and profit growth causing their stocks to go down even more.   \n\nNow if all of that sounds fun (and unfortunately very likely), then lets factor in what happens when the US government runs up the deficit to try and maintain entitlement spending programs like Medicare and Social Security which are trillion dollar liabilities.   Medicare makes Social Security look like a small problem.   The point is that nearly all of the tax collected by the IRS goes to pay the debt on the deficit, that's just sad.   So as our debt runs up, interest rates have to rise in order to continue to attract foreign capital to our debt to finance our spending.   Rising interest rates again will slow the economy making it harder for business to expand and borrow for capital spending and as such again the stock markets will plumet.\n\nStill having fun?  How about this...    Paper money used to be certificates that represented the equivalent value of gold.   This was called the gold standard.  Basically it meant that paper money had value, the value of gold that backed it up.   Under Nixon the US went off the gold standard and paper money became basically worthless.  Now it doesn't represent anything.   Inflation eats away at a dollar to the extent that between that and taxes, people who put their money in the bank and save are actually losing money.  Don't believe me?  Check this out.   If you're getting 4.5% in your savings account and inflation is currently coming in at about 4.0% for 2006.   So you're making .5% right?  Wrong.  Don't forget that you have to pay taxes on interest income of the 4.5% which will amount to roughly 1.5% (about 30% tax rate).   So between inflation and taxes, you're actually losing 1% per year.   Of course this goes on assumptions of inflation rate (which could go higher or a little lower) and savings rate (which current is running around 4.5%) but the point is that all the people saving will in the next 10-15 years find that their money is worth a lot less than when they put it in the bank.   This again will cause hardship for people.\n\nI hate to have the bad attitude here, I hope this stuff doesn't come to pass but we're on the train and this is where the track is headed.   Hopefully we'll have the sense to stop the train before we get to that point, but its unlikely.
1094768
The crazy truth about social security is that it's not a savings plan for your future. Everything that is deducted from your paycheck now is used to make social security payments to those currently receving benefits. We are paying for the benefits of the previous generation and the next generation will be paying for ours. However, everyone agrees that this is an unsustainable model and that the program will most likely go bust in the next few decades. Although I am not a big fan of Bush, he did attempt to pass legislation that would allow people making payments into a retirement plan to forego paying social security taxes. This idea was shot down pretty quickly...
302988
Another problem many people have with social security privatization is the financial risk factor.  While it is safe to say something has to be done or SS will run out, which is total risk, I'm speaking as if both privatization and the current system were indefinate.\n   With the current system, while there isn't going to be enough money in like 20 yrs., the money that is in SS is safe.  It draws very little interest, like your banks simple savings account, but can 99.99% be assured it will be there tommorow and the day after, so on.  With putting the money into the market, you adopt risks similiar to the stock market.  You might draw a much higher interest on your retirment investment, but one good crash or another Enron and your SS is gone.  I think the government would have to back up SS money that is privatized for it to be comfortable, say they'll cover your initial investment only.  It'd be a pitiful amount as if you save for retirment for 40+ years it is the interest and not the principal that looks good on the statment, but it would be something.
319007
A solution... government bite the bullet and pay it back...\n\nPrivatized systems work great for the 15 percent of the population that has the money to do that, but for the majority just barely making it by, they won't be able to save enough to actually retire, ever... \n\nSo, when all these people get retirement age, guess what, they're going to look at their private account, realize isn't not enough to do anything with, especially with inflation, and vote in someone who will take care of them...at a far greater cost to the gov. down the road...\n\nI would be willing to be that about 95 percent of people who push for "private accounts" already own stock... if the government switched over, the huge demand for stocks that would be created would push the stock market sky-high, making all those people very rich... that's really convenient isn't it...
1174605
anything to do with healthcare....with the millions of baby boomers on the horizon they will outnumber us and our resources....
251662
I wouldn't count on it.  If you're young, you don't need to depend on receiving SS when you retire.  It would be a wise idea to participate in your employer's retirement program or invest some money some way so that you are preparing for your future.
141803
Not knowing if Social Security will be available for when younger generations are elderly; it's a good idea any to save your money today for when you get older.  You could still work if you want to when you're older, but wouldn't be nice knowing that you don't have to if you don't want to.
55010
Of course not. It would still be in fine shape if Congress had not utilized its funds for other purposes. Even then, and assuming a mediocre economy, it would pay a good percentage of the pension amounts for the next 50 years or so.\nI am afraid that the hype about its demise was fostered by an administration that wants to get rid of it and support a plan that will be enormously profitable for brokers and financial advisers, among others. And a plan that will be enormously expensive for us to implement, while at the same time removing the security that people have worked to obtain in their elderly years.
213076
Yes. If you are still covered under a retirement plain at work the answer is yes
1157588
I believe they would if they had to live off the very little given in social security...  But they don't worry about it, as they will never have to live off of the little over $600 a month (way below poverty level)...\n\nAlthough, people today use SS as a way to retire, when it was originally designed to help penioners back when it was created.  It wasn't meant as a sole income...
1041764
I think that the biggest problem we are facing today is Social Security. By the time I get to be 55 their will no longer be SS for me and even though I am young I look forward to a retirement some day. With people living longer it's taking more money out of our pockets, and we won't get to enjoy it in the feature.
553768
It's more important, but less urgent. The reason it's more important, is because when your kids reach college age, there will be options open to them. They will be able to go to college if they want to. But when you reach retirement age, and if you haven't prepared for it, you might not be able to retire, or you might decide that you don't want to retire with what little you have. Social Security is helping seniors less and less, and in the future it will only become increasingly inadequate. Schools are implementing more and more work/study programs. You want to do both.