I'm not sure if you read it, but this will be the first year that Social Security will spend more than it takes in. This is a scary thought. At least it is a scary thought to me because it means that Social Security will likely run out of money sooner than expected. Fortunately, this isn't just upsetting to me. The Washington Post had an editorial this morning discussing the importance of Social Security Reform to address the solvency issues.
Let me break down the issue a little bit more. Social Security (like Medicare) takes the taxes you pay and puts them into a trust fund. This means that the money in the trust fund can only be used to pay for Social Security. It cannot be used to pay down the national debt, defense, nor the economic stimulus. Over time, this trust fund was built up by the taxes we paid. In general, the trust fund was taking in more revenue that it was spending. This was a good thing and something the Social Security Administration (SSA) had prepared for because it knew that when the baby boomers hit retirement, the revenues would not be enough to match the outlays.
Here is the kicker, if Social Security will run through the trust fund in 2037... what we will do? I will be in my 50's. I am pretty sure I will be tired from working and I don't think I'll be enthusiastic to fix the problem then. But here is the clincher... we know that there is a problem coming. We know that it can be fixed. The problem is... we lack the will-power to fix it because it means that everyone will have to give up a little to make sure that it continues to survive (if we want it to survive).
Over the next few weeks, I am want to explore some of these proposals and see that you think about them. Surely there is something to be said for making sure that our parents are taken care of... but what about us?
No comments:
Post a Comment