What are young people going to do when the US government runs out of social security?

[Hardkill]

They say that Social Security will become insolvent by around 2035 and Republicans keep threatening take social security away from Millennials and younger generations. 

Younger people like me are very worried that we may not ever have any guaranteed retirement savings at all by the time we reach the age of 65 to 70 something years old.

Retirement savings and investing plans such as 401K have serious risks.

Are people 45 years old and younger screwed?

[Gidiot]

There’s a good quote by a guy named Chris Williams, “there’s two types of people in this world, the rich and the fucked”

Edited October 1, 2022 by Gidiot

[JosephKnecht]

18 hours ago, Hardkill said:

Are people 45 years old and younger screwed?

Why do you think millennials are buying Bitcoins? 

Intuitively they know the current fiat-based system won't survive the next 10 years. 

[Tyler Robinson]

They will go to work. 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Tyler Robinson

[Hardkill]

Seriously?! These are the best responses you guys can come up with?

Bitcoin has become one of the biggest scams ever made.

How can you guarantee you'll be able to continue to work at the age of retirement?

[Leo Gura]

It's not hard to make it solvent by adjusting taxes appropriately.

Right-wingers love to say it's insolvent so they can privatize it.

Edited October 2, 2022 by Leo Gura

[Gidiot]

Honestly dude, I dig your political analysis but I’ve told you and Leo told you that you are worrying too much. I don’t think social security will be taken away, it’ll be as popular as repealing roe vs wade

[JosephKnecht]

9 hours ago, Hardkill said:

Bitcoin has become one of the biggest scams ever made.

How can you guarantee you'll be able to continue to work at the age of retirement?

It will continue to work because a genius designed it. 

Its value will fluctuate because people collectively decide on its value. 

However, its total supply is limited, while the governments will continue to print money. 

[Hardkill]

23 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

It's not hard to make it solvent by adjusting taxes appropriately.

Right-wingers love to say it's insolvent so they can privatize it.

Well, of course the right wing will say anything to convince enough people to believe that anything run by government doesn't work. 

However, this issue hasn't been brought up just from the right wing. Even centrist based news outlets have also been mentioning this as a real concern:

 

We definitely need to raise the taxes a lot more on the rich and corporations for many reasons including providing much more funding for social security. However, that seems very likely unlikely to happen within the foreseeable future because of how many Republicans and corporate Dems we have and will continue have in Congress for at least another 2-3 decades.  Unless, we have a powerful progressive or liberal movement of some kind that will be able to put enough pressure on enough politicians in the government to seriously fix the entire tax code.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Hardkill

[sholomar]

I think there's going to be a major problem funding social programs in all western nations in the future. We have low birth rates, high levels of aging population, and labor shortages in the medical field basically everywhere. It's going to take major inflation and central bank QE to fund all these social programs and has been seen post  pandemic, wages don't keep up with the inflation squeezing the working class majorly. If you continue to spend more money than you produce, you will keep having inflation. Central bank quantitative easing has been the new magic trick post 2008 to keep the system solvent and liquid. Central banks control interest rates and buy surplus government bonds in all major countries now. It's the new normal... basically a form of debt monetization, as these bonds will never be wound down or paid off.

We also have a housing affordability problem. Too many investors buying homes like stocks, and renting them out or turning them into AirBNBs.

The good old days of baby boomers being able to pay 2.5X their annual income for a home are gone, and probably not coming back.  A good start would be to have a higher top end income tax... we survived for 75 years in the early part of the 20th century with a top tax bracket of well over 50% and this nation did just fine. CEO pay is now at 400 times the amount of the typical worker, a new record. I also believe people should be banned form owning more than 3 homes, and that corporations should not be allowed to own single family residential real estate, nor should non US citizens.

That said, aren't taxes in Europe more regressive than progressive? Does it vary by country?

If I was president I'd peg the capital gains tax rate to the income tax rate, meaning no discounts on long term capital gains or dividends. I'd also lower the 22% tax bracket to 18%, raise the 35% bracket to 38%, the 35% bracket to 42%, and create a 50% tax bracket for all income over $2 million, and a 65% tax bracket on income over $5 million.  I'd eliminate itemizing. Business deductions create too many opportunities to abuse the system. People want to brag about writing off their new boat as a business expense? Eliminate that loophole.  It's also way too easy to use LLCs, trusts, and other vehicles to shield and hide assets. I'd largely eliminate these loopholes.

Edited October 5, 2022 by sholomar

[DocWatts]

Sadly I don't think we'll be making a ton of forward progress on long term social problems until the Boomers politely die off, and people with a vested interest in making our systems sustainable are given room to move into positions of power. The generational divide is a huge (though far from the only) obstacle to solving long term problems like making social security solvent.

Edited October 5, 2022 by DocWatts

[Leo Gura]

The legit concern is an aging population. Yes, this requires forward thinking which American politics is completely incapable of right now.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Leo Gura

[Jodistrict]

Social security was meant to be self financing.  It's not for free.   People pay into it during their entire working life.  But congress took the money out over the years calling it borrowing.  The system should be made truly independent and it will work.

[Ulax]

On 01/10/2022 at 1:34 AM, Hardkill said:

They say that Social Security will become insolvent by around 2035 and Republicans keep threatening take social security away from Millennials and younger generations. 

Younger people like me are very worried that we may not ever have any guaranteed retirement savings at all by the time we reach the age of 65 to 70 something years old.

Retirement savings and investing plans such as 401K have serious risks.

Are people 45 years old and younger screwed?

Who are 'they'?

[Hardkill]

 

7 hours ago, DocWatts said:

Sadly I don't think we'll be making a ton of forward progress on long term social problems until the Boomers politely die off, and people with a vested interest in making our systems sustainable are given room to move into positions of power. The generational divide is a huge (though far from the only) obstacle to solving long term problems like making social security solvent.

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The legit concern is an aging population. Yes, this requires forward thinking which American politics is completely incapable of right now.

Then, does this mean that Social Security is probably going to be doomed in the next decade?

Or when we are near 2035, will Congress and a future POTUS by that time, eventually be pressured enough by the people to come up with a workable forward thinking solution for both this social security problem and the aging population issue?

 

 

[DocWatts]

1 hour ago, Hardkill said:

 

Then, does this mean that Social Security is probably going to be doomed in the next decade?

Or when we are near 2035, will Congress and a future POTUS by that time, eventually be pressured enough by the people to come up with a workable forward thinking solution for both this social security problem and the aging population issue?

That's going to be entirely dependent on how functional our democratic institutions are by that point. Popular pressure only works to the extent that institutions are able to be held accountable, and people feel like they have an actual chance at changing things by partipating in politics.

[Razard86]

This problem isn't something new it was talked about back in 2008. Currently there is no solution. The current government we have is not going to raise taxes to fix it, so the solution is....move somewhere else LOL!!! Otherwise you will work till you drop dead. Or maybe you will find a way to have a decent retirement by saving your money or investing.

[axiom]

In the future, AI will work so you don't have to. This will provide some monetary slack for retirees and/or the disabled etc.

As people properly begin to understand decentralisation, government will get smaller, and paychecks will go further.

Within a decade after this crash, the dollar will die in its current form, and we will overwhelmingly return to sound money.

Population will reduce significantly - whether through war, famine or disease.

[LfcCharlie4]

I read an investing book called 'How To Own The World' its from a UK perspective, but we call social security Pensions. 

This was written Pre Covid and the insane Gov spending that caused, and basically every single country is broke and debt riddled up to their eyeballs, but no government wants to take responsibility so kicks the can down the road. 

So, I'm only 22 but I've even told my parents not to expect much from the Gov in terms of pension & to plan accordingly. 

You can complain how shit it is & how incompetent monetary policy has been (true) but its not gonna heat your home or pay your mortgage, so at the least prepare as well through investing & building your own wealth. 

This is the book, great read- https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Own-World-life-changing-bestseller/dp/1473695309/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1665131404&sr=1-1

[Leo Gura]

On 10/5/2022 at 5:29 PM, Hardkill said:

does this mean that Social Security is probably going to be doomed in the next decade?

I don't think so.