You should read about the depression.

^^^^ truth being told ^^^^^ the cold hard truth... ss is a flat tax

Lots meaning several handfuls? SS started in 1935. My dad was 9 then and he died at 89 in 2011.

We gave out way too much to the past retirees. We've known that for decades and the issue has had fixes that more or less punted the problem down the road. We will do it again and again. We don't fix unfunded liabilities since it would involve pain. You can't get back money you've already given away. Our last best chance to address these problems came when Ross Perot was a candidate. He laid it all out. As an independent he had no chance but his 3rd party run was the strongest in history. He made the other candidates face the question during the election cycle but, like usual, once the election was over the issue became small again and it was "fixed" again knowing we would fix it again and again.

Won't get killed. Not out of money. Over a trillion dollars has been "invested" in government bonds. That's what they're dipping into.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lets-debunk-this-social-security-myth/

You youngs need to ante up. I saved fine. Made it through 3 severe market crashes and watched savings shrink from inflation over 2% while banks paid less that.

Hard to grow savings when saving actually shrinks your investment. Heck, we're over $20 trillion in debt (thank the boomers) so fixing SS is easy by comparison.

They have been saying SS is going to run out of money since I was in college. I am almost at retirement age and it still going strong.


Fear not it will keep on being there, and no cuts. They will just extend the age at which you can retire.

Why don't they ever talk about Welfare running out of money or getting cut, seems as if they can find enough money to take care of them

Lots not meaning several handfuls but "most" people are too young to know what it was like.

We seem to be willing to give a lot to make sure where people go when they die while ignoring how they live while alive. Makes me wonder what keeps the blood flowing.

Amen, brother. And there are no age requirements or cutoffs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not overly concerned about losing 23% of my future Social Security check, as my planning is based on the idea that it will be zero anyways. 23% less of zero is ... let's see ... nuthin', and nuthin' .... carry the zero .... times nuthin' ...

But it's a matter of great concern given the huge number of people whose retirement "plan" is their future Social Security checks. Without that cash income, things will get ugly for alot of older people.

What concerns me more is that people ought to be looking at this country as being in competition with other countries. We ought to be in favor of reducing taxes as much as possible to reduce our costs in this country.

Instead, what I hear is that some just want to tax future generations more. That�s the opposite of what I believe to be in the best interest of this country. I�m concerned about killing the golden goose.

Yep, no problem for me either.

Have you ever thought about what this country would be like without SS, Medicare and welfare programs?

Is that the kind of country you would like to live in or you would like your descendants to live in?

Do you have any idea of what per cent of the population relies on these programs?

Do you like seeing homeless people and beggars at stop lights now? Would it get better or worse?

Would crime go up or down?

Would you feel safer and would you feel that your kids and family members would be safer?

Would the country be healthier or would there be more disease?

Would assisted suicide be acceptable when old people are broke or can't pay the bills?

Do we let the children or others starve to death?

Would there be more opportunity to improve a child's life or less?

Do you know what benefits are provided other than retirement from SS? Disability, spouse and children's benefits?

^This. Cold hard truth is the majority of people who are wise with their money before retirement can do just fine without SS.

I do not think more government programs are the answer to success. I believe less government programs is key.