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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (144237)	9/15/2010 3:46:23 PM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 542977

The SS system is flush with cash - huge balances of money paid by working men and women that has then been borrowed by the government to do crap like run wars. Precisely right. Great post.

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (144237)	9/15/2010 8:46:39 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542977

2040? That's only 30 years away. We better start twinking (sp). And my guess is, those numbers didn't factor in what is happening now to our economy. The numbers are generally overly rosy in these projections. And hey, flush is a GOOD thing. There's still no reason to have people retiring at 65, just because the money is there. That's a ridiculous thing to encourage, imo. Is there a reason you think 65 is a super number when folks are living much longer today? I'd rather have people producing, if they are productive. We've got enough dead wood in this society; we don't need to encourage the people who actually can work to quit. Might be harsh, but I'm not changing my mind on this one.

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (144237)	9/15/2010 10:02:12 PM
From: 8bits	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542977

The SS system is flush with cash - huge balances of money paid by working men and women that has then been borrowed by the government to do crap like run wars. The system is in balance until the year 2040 or something like that and to make it stay balanced way longer it just needs an occasional twinking. It's not filled with cash, it's filled with IOUs (Which I think you knew, but I think it's a very important difference..). "During 2010, the Trust Fund held $2.5 trillion in government account series bonds—essentially "IOUs" or claims on the government's general fund or tax revenues. This amount is part of the total national debt of $13.3 trillion as of August 2010. By 2015, the government is expected to have borrowed nearly $3.25 trillion against the Social Security Trust Fund." Even if the Social Security fund by itself is ok.. the rest of budget is not. If in 10 or 15 years (or less) the US has ongoing structural problems... where is it going to get the cash to pay back the Social Security fund? Then there is the other part of the equation for retirement.. Medicare, which is projected to cause a greater structural deficit in the future. The system is in balance until the year 2040* or something like that...* By the way I don't know if you saw this: Social Security to See Payout Exceed Pay-In This Year: nytimes.com nytimes.com The chart below is out of date: en.wikipedia.org Because in 2010 we already have a Social Security deficit.