Social Security: Changing The Ratio Of Social Security

Social Security today is a little different from the original version of the Economic Security Act that should have been. Social Security pays for much more than can be afforded. If Social Security’s net worth is exponentially decreasing. While many citizens believe that the amount one puts into income tax is the promised amount back in Social Security payout this is not the case. The amount one receives is dependent of the working class during one 's retirement which is no different from the original plan besides the fact that the money is no longer going directly to persons but is divided into many federal projects and then the rest given to persons. This dividation of wages only leaves portions of what many citizens believed promised to them goes to building a new bridge in a

The impact of all of these options are huge because they affect every American. The options provided here are the 6 biggest options when it comes to Social Security. Now that everyone knows what might happen, lets talk more about the when. In 2010, the amount of money coming in was to small to pay back to people. Interest from the trust bonds was collected to help aid in maintaining full benefits. As a temporary solution, shaving the interest off the bonds would have been a great fix, but the original problem still exists. Nothing has been done to balance the money in to money out ratio. Unless Congress makes some big calls, in 2020, the SSA will be forced to sell their bonds. With the interest already being collected, and now the bonds being sold, the amount of money earning interest would severely drop.

It is kind of a cycle that keeps on going, and it adjusts accordingly to inflation and population changes and so on. But there are those who think that it is not going to hold up and the reserves will be depleted in the future as baby boomers get older. This is not true at all because as there are more people needing it, the inflation rate will also go up, giving everybody a chance to receive the benefits of social security.

Notably, the elderly populace is growing rapidly, and will reach 3.4 million or 12.8% of the population. Eventually, in the next thirty years older adults will comprise of 20% of the total population due to the aging of 76 million baby boomers (Olson, 2001). Seeing that, entitlement programs and means-tested benefits, are presented, in order to bolster this increment of older adults. Accordingly, around 96% of the American workforce is secured by Social Security and it is likewise estimated that 58 million American will receive a total of $816 billion in Social Security benefits (Moody and Sasser, 2015). In fact, today 56 million or 17% of the population is enlisted in Medicare (Leonard, 2015). Therefore, this has presented an open deliberation about the eventual fate of Medicare and Social Security and regardless of whether changing Medicare and Social Security to means-tested benefits, instead of entitlement programs can resolve the policy issues.

Current problems with the Social Security fund exist, and are the reasons why Social Security is in the need of reform. According to Forbes Magazine, the fund is expected to run out by 2033 (Teal 2013). At this point, money will still be coming in, but will not pay out the full benefits to recipients. The worker to retiree ratio is continuously declining, being approximately three workers to every

Debates over Social Security have been ongoing since its inception in 1935 until today. The trend seems to be toward an increasing percentage of the American public, across party and demographic lines, in favor of strengthening Social Security funding, and a willingness to pay more to preserve and even improve benefits. However, the trend towards privatization of Social Security is also on the rise. What is not clear is whether Americans favor privatization because of fears that the Social Security Trust Fund is living on borrowed time.

It will leave my generation, our children and grandchildren, with back breaking taxes, which will have its own domino effect of causing ever increasing inflation. To be eligible for Social Security, which once was at age sixty-two for full benefits and now is age sixty-six and soon will be sixty-seven and as the years go by who knows what the retirement age will be for us. Social Security is paid through payroll taxes which pay for the benefits of today’s retirees. Money in excess of what is needed to pay today’s benefits is invested in special treasury bonds. This system works well when there is a rather high ratio of workers to beneficiaries or retirees. For instance, in 1960, there were 5.1 workers for every Social Security recipient or retiree, but the demographics are changing because Americans are living longer and are having fewer children. Today, there are 3.3 workers paying Social Security payroll taxes for every one person collecting Social Security benefits. That number will drop to 2 to 1 in less than forty years. At this ratio there will not be enough workers to pay scheduled benefits at currents tax rates. The last reason why social Security is unstable is because the government does not guarantee the benefits. According

Social security was created in response to the persuasive poverty during the great depression. It began when the social security act was signed by the FDR on Aug 14, 1935 but taxes for it were not collected until January 1937. Although its goal was to provide retired citizens with funds to survive it was ultimately a long-term shortfall. The plan for social security as it stands today would only last until 2033. This is due to demographic pressures and a week economy as of late. Without any modifications, social security will certainly not be around for the future generations.

I believe our current social security system should be replaced by a mandatory private pension system. If it is not gracefully transitioned from the way it currently is then it will unfortunately disappear altogether in an abrupt fashion. A replacement will alleviate this issue and replace it with a viable option that can sustain itself.

According to a USA Today article from last year, nearly sixty percent of Americans have more than $25,000 put away for retirement. Thirty-six percent of Americans have less than $1000 saved for later in life. This means that as more people, especially the baby boomer generation, retire, there will be more strain on program such as Social Security and Medicare, and ultimately the federal budget that is responsible for these programs. If steps are taken now to close this gap, we will insure the continued longevity of these programs by raising the tax contributions flowing into both Social Security and Medicare.

My choice for a solution for maintaining the solvency of the Social Security administration is to Raising the Income Cap. With any solution you chose there are pros and cons to each choice. We first have to look at the Social Security’s taxable maximum. In 1937, it’s a payroll taxes applied on your first $3,000 in earnings, in 2011, $106,800 on first earnings, and in 2015, $118,500 on first earnings. According to Senate Committee on Aging (2010), eliminating the taxable maximum without the increasing of benefits will decrease the 75-year actuarial deficit by 2.32 percent. With the increase the deficit would be reduced by 1.89 percent of taxable payroll. “Increasing the cap on taxable earnings would generate greater payroll tax revenues to reduce

     There is much-heated debate on the issues of Social Security today. The Social Security system is the largest government program of income distribution in the United States. People are concerned that they won't see a dime of what they worked so hard to contribute into the Social Security system for so many years. Social Security provides benefits to about forty-three million Americans. Not only to retired workers, but also to their spouses and dependents of the workers who die prematurely. It also provides benefits to disabled workers and their dependents. Social Security appears to most people like a simple retirement saving’s account. After all, you generally

To understand what the retirement earning test is and how it works, you must first understand how social security works. Social security in the United States of America is a program run by the government that provides income to millions of Americans who cannot work due to retirement, disability, or death (nasi.org). However the true function of Social Security is to provide supplemental income to people after retirement. It roughly replaces 40% of average worker’s income after retirement, requiring many social security receivers to continue working after their normal retirement age. How it works essentially is workers’ pay part of their income into a pool, that immediately gets disbursed to citizens getting benefits right now. They sacrifice a slice of their paycheck in the present, to be able to claim benefits when they go into retirement. The social security system has been changed constantly over the years. One thing that has not changed over the years, is the ability to claim benefits early.

Social Security system provides benefits to retired citizens by taxing the work force on payroll checks. The American Association of Retired People announces, “Maximum Taxable Earnings, in 2012, workers paid Social Security taxes on income up to $110,100. In 2013, the figure will rise to $113,700, based on an increase in average wages.” The AARP shares the maximum taxable earnings from workers has rose since last year. By raising the taxable amount, workers will then be taxed on a higher income. Time states, “People retiring today will be among the first generation of workers to pay more in Social Security taxes than they receive in benefits over the course of their lives, according to a new analysis by the Associated Press.” The analysis shares that many of the newer generation that will retire in the future will be paying more in

(5) Currently SS funds are collected and distributed on a pay - as - you -go (PAYG) system in which Social Security taxes from individuals are immediately distributed by the means of the SS Administration as it sees best fit. This means that taxes collected are not reserved for the individual who has paid them: in Rose 2 the current state he or she must rely on those persons paying SS taxes during the time of their retirement (Becker). For a number of these characteristics and future issues, the Social Security System must be reformed or completely abolished to meet the needs of tomorrow. The leading concerns of Social Security that merits the immediate initiation of reform are the demographic and economic circumstances in the coming century. Even though "forecasting the economy and budget over such a long period is uncertain" there remain many "certainties" regarding problems facing Social Security in the first half of the 21st century (OMB, Budget Perspectives 23). The Federal Government's responsibilities extend well beyond "the five- or six-year window" that has restricted the focus of recent budget analysis and debate. Of these "certainties" are the mounting challenges posed from the baby-boomer generation. This generation, born in the years after World War II, is aging