Originally Posted by Guest

SS is a pay was you go program. Money is not put away in an account under your name. The reality of the situation is that each working person is "supporting" more retired people now then in the past and the ratio will only get worse. SS taxes must increase and/or benefits must be reduced to continue the program as America continues to grey. People are living longer than ever and collecting benefits for a longer period of time than ever before. Raising the retirement age is one way to stabilize the program.

The SS program has not been mismanaged. other than there inability to effectively clamp down on fraud. Congress has not addressed the funding issue yet but there is time to change the trajectory. The Government has no vehicle for investing the SS surpluses of the past other than Treasury Bills - essentially IOUs from Treasury to SS. Those IOUs will be used up in 2033, at which point there is no legal way to borrow money (and the cashing in of those IOUs is nothing more than borrowing money on the global market) to fund the shortfall. Benefits will have to be reduced at that time if no changes to SS are made. If you want to discuss the inability of our Government to balance the budget that is an entirely different topic, and yes they have done a miserable job.