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Please remember Social Security was created to provide regular people that already saved for retirement with savings accounts and market investments but lost it all when the banks closed and the market collapsed. Social Security is an INSURANCE SYSTEM not a pension.
I would like to "reform" social Security by:
Not allowing the Federal Treasury to borrow money from the system. Keep the SS system separate from the Federal government.
Eliminating the cap on taxable income and applying it to all income from all sources.
Progressively eliminate payments to the below the 90th percentile income when payments would stop. (SS is an insurance system and the 90th percentile people do not need insurance. their other investments or incomes take care of them quite well.)
Recalculate the tax rates and payment schedule to reflect these proposed changes.
There actually was interest from the public in Bush's plan-----------------------UNTIL Bush started giving those "pesky" details while traveling the country to sell the idea.
Mainly, the cost of $3 TRILLION to make the transition.
Whatever the cost is, isn't this the primary obstacle to any privatization?
For example, if you implemented it today, you couldn't just devote a portion of an employees FICA contribution to a private account, or you'd come up short on benefits to current retirees (the paygo thing). So you'd be asking current employees to up their FICA contribution from the current 6.25% (to pay current retirees) to a higher % with the amount over 6.25% going to their private (Soc Sec but separate) account. Obviously current employees could just start putting aside money in a brokerage or mutual fund account if they'd like.
But as mathjak noted, the track record for most individual small investors has not been very good...so I can understand why there might be interest in some automatic investment, though that has it's serious problems too (consensus among participants).
Eliminating the cap on taxable income and applying it to all income from all sources.
Progressively eliminate payments to the below the 90th percentile income when payments would stop. (SS is an insurance system and the 90th percentile people do not need insurance. their other investments or incomes take care of them quite well.)
While I can argue both sides, I'll be surprised if some variant on both these changes aren't enacted sooner or later, whether "we" agree or not. We'll see...
So you just want to steal it from them and not even ACT LIKE they are getting a return?
(no "we" here.... I'm not rich)
Here's a dumb question (and I'm not asking this to be a smart arse...)
Doesn't everyone contribute to unemployment benefits but not everyone use them? I don't hear people say people 'steal' from others..how is SS different?
Please remember Social Security was created to provide regular people that already saved for retirement with savings accounts and market investments but lost it all when the banks closed and the market collapsed. Social Security is an INSURANCE SYSTEM not a pension.
I would like to "reform" social Security by:
Not allowing the Federal Treasury to borrow money from the system. Keep the SS system separate from the Federal government.
Eliminating the cap on taxable income and applying it to all income from all sources.
Progressively eliminate payments to the below the 90th percentile income when payments would stop. (SS is an insurance system and the 90th percentile people do not need insurance. their other investments or incomes take care of them quite well.)
Recalculate the tax rates and payment schedule to reflect these proposed changes.
so force rich people to buy insurance they will never even be eligible to receive? typical attitude in this country let the other guy pay for it and provide for you
if it's insurance really people shouldnt have to put anything into it if they won't want to since they will likely never need it. additionally when the payments into the insurance for one year can exceed what that person would receive over the course of their entire life if they needed to receive it, it is not insurance it is just theft.
take a self employeed person who makes 10 million dollars this year- they will pay 1.5 million into this "insurance"
Lets say they end up going broke and live to be 100- 2 extremely unlikely scenarios-they would receive less than 1.5 million dollars in ss over their very long retirement. Even forgetting time value of money and the fact they likely won't earn 10 million dollars one year and nothing for the rest of their lives, why would anyone every pay more in insurance premiums than they could ever receive in payouts? That makes absolutely no sense.
The real point of insurance which most people in this country seem to forget, is you are paying a premium to pool risk in case something catastrophic happens.I don't have health insurance in case I get fever or ear infection- I have it in case i get hit by a truck,my heart explodes, i get some debilitating disease etc.If insurance cost me more money than I would get paid in the event something terrible happens I wouldnt need it at all. Rich people don't need to pay millions of dollars a year in social security "insurance" to at most receive a few thousand dollars a month in case they ever need it.
Last edited by bxlefty23; 03-18-2013 at 12:58 PM..
yea because this unsustainable ponzi scheme is working so well
You know what I meant!
I was saying that if you DON'T want to, you can leave it alone....
Part of my frustration w/SS is how screwed up it is....
I actually like the idea and think it should be debated in a civil way. Not throwing around demagoge terms like "throwing granny off the cliff" or silly stuff like that...
so force rich people to buy insurance they will never even be eligible to receive? typical attitude in this country let the other guy pay for it and provide for you
Let me ask you a simple question.
Are you against a true safety net like what SS was/should be intended for?
Here's a dumb question (and I'm not asking this to be a smart arse...)
Doesn't everyone contribute to unemployment benefits but not everyone use them? I don't hear people say people 'steal' from others..how is SS different?
In my entire working career I never paid one cent into unemployment insurance.
My employer paid it.
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