Some people believe that to combat the coming crisis in Social Security, the federal government should raise the retirement age. This is the easy way out. More has to be done to insure the viability of this program. Reducing the current drain on this program may require using it for its intended purpose only.
The current full retirement age for people born before 1960 is 65. Anyone born 1960 or later, it is age 67. Anyone, however, can apply for early retirement at age 61 years and 9 months in order to start receiving payments at age 62.
The age of 65 was originally set, according to the SSA dot Gov website, because it was one year past the average life expectancy. Which seems to say that the government never intended to pay out all of what it collected in the first place. It looks somewhat like a forced federal lottery.
As this writer understands it, payroll payments into the Social Security Fund accrues interest and is therefore “self-financing”. Forbes. While it may be true that there are fewer workers to pay into the system, a number of other factors change that picture. The minimum wage is higher and the “Earnings suspense file” is likely increasing (Seattle_Times).
The real reason why social security is in trouble appears to be from borrowing and other uses than what it was intended for in its inception. It’s a little like putting a child’s allowance into a jar that the child never sees. And, then replacing that money with IOU’s that will never get paid back. It erodes the child’s trust just like the SSA erodes the taxpayer’s trust.
Additionally, the amount we collect depends on what we have earned in the past. (This is assuming that we’ve worked long enough to earn our 40 points.) The problem here is that the very wealthy don’t pay social security on any earnings above $106,800. MSNBC.
One of the ‘other uses’ includes welfare and food stamps to illegal persons who come to America to birth their children. Birthing a child in America by an illegal person is called Chain Migration. Birthright.
The child collects welfare and food stamps until he or she becomes of age. (This does not include any payments into the system prior to receiving them.) When that child becomes of age, he or she may legally bring into the country their parents who then bring in in-laws who would bring in their families too. All of them would qualify for financial assistance from taxpayers and their future Social Security.
In 2003, the estimated number of these births was 2.3 million. In 2008, it was 4 million. The Citizenship clause in the 14th amendment and its interpretation is the culprit for this chain migration trend. These illegal people will bankrupt America.
The payments we make into social security was originally intended as a retirement fund only, according to the SSA dot org site. It now pays for a variety of insurances (disability, survivors, unemployment, veterans, hospital and medical), welfare, food stamps, emergency assistance, and other welfare services. SSA.
The argument for raising the retirement age is that the average person supposedly lives to the age of 79. What they aren’t considering, however, is the quality of that life. Concessions and privileges are extended to large corporations that poison us.
Unnecessary pharmaceuticals, cyanide in cigarettes, wood fibers in shredded cheese, perfumed and denatured orange juice, and MSG are just a few examples of how we are poisoned. Chemicals in hand lotion that damage DNA, over exposure to x-ray machines, mercury in our teeth, and numerous other examples show why our quality of health has deteriorated.
It is this writer’s understanding is that Medicare/Medicaid not only is deducted from the social security benefits but it is not available without receiving those benefits. So, an increased retirement age also delays medical costs in Medicaid.
So, if the only discussion or proposal for Social Security reform is the full retirement age increase, it is a clear sign that a load of horse do-do is on the way. The Social Security Fund has been mismanaged. There can’t be true reform until that mismanagement is fixed.