Social Security’s Future

The one thing retirees need is their Social Security Retirement payments. They contributed to this government mandated retirement plan with 7% of earnings matched by their employers. If this had been put into individually owned accounts, recipients would have tripled their investment and families with total contributions of $500 thousand would have $1.5 million.  Unfortunately none of these dollars were invested in anything that produces a return.  Instead, the federal government spent the money on other things. So where are we on this issue?

US Census Demographics show current and projected population numbers and percentages from 2015 to 2060.  The percentage of the population over age 65 is about 17% in 2015.  This increases to 19% in 2020 and to about 21% in 2025.  It moves to about 24% in 2030 and remains flat until 2060. 

So, the question is: Is the “baby boom” panic is all hype?, or are the projections flawed?  Social Security costs did leap about 10% in 2008, but there is no bid drop-off in over-65 population from 2030 to 2060.  So, the high Social Security costs don’t drop after the “baby boomers” pass away.

The percentage of the population under age 17 is about 25% in 2015 and declines to about 23% by 2060. 

The working age population is about 60%.  But 40% of these working age citizens, 102 million don’t have jobs. That leaves about 150 million citizens making Ponzi payments into Social Security.

Data Source: https://www.census.gov/population/projections/data/national/2014/summarytables.html   NP2014T-3 US Pop by age N, NP2014T-7 US Pop by age %

If we had not allowed 60 million babies to be slaughtered, our working age population would be higher, assuming that we would not have immigrated 41 million foreigners over the past 25 years it would be 20 million higher.

We do need uncorrupted investment options for citizens to build their retirement, but unless we cut federal government spending by $1 trillion a year, we won’t be able to keep the Social Security Ponzi scheme going enough to transform it into individual retirement accounts.  We also need to pay down our $20 trillion debt, so that interest rates can readjust to “market”. We need to repeal the Inheritance tax to give ordinary families the opportunity to build their wealth.

Singapore allows citizens to borrow their social security retirement balances to buy their homes. This would be a helpful addition to individual accounts.  You borrow your own money and pay yourself interest.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader