Social Security?

Question

Do you feel the Social Security tax that is collected out of everyones check shoule be put in an account just for Social Security?

Answer 1

i think half should be taken into a private retirement account that you control and the other half should yes go into a designated SS account that is invested (the kind of investments that generate more money) and is a government controlled unit.

Answer 2

How would you pay current recipients if all that money were going into a giant retirement account?

Currently, all the money collected in SS taxes is either paid out as SS, or put into a fund for future SS payments. It's still not enough - that fund will still go bankrupt before the last babyboomer retires - but it's not being spent on anything else.

What is happening, though, is that the SS tax is being raised on future generations 'secretly' by 'investing' that fund in US Treasuries. Since those bonds will be paid out of current reciepts when they come do, SS will, as the fund is tapped, eat up more and more of the tax revenues at the time. So, in the future, every dime of SS tax will go to social security, as will an ever-growing portion of regular income tax revenues to pay back that 'investment' in government bonds.

So, yes, that's in effect what's going on, and no, it won't help. Social Security - like every other ponzi scheme ever enacted - is doomed to collapse.

Answer 3

It should have been invested in private, interest bearing accounts in the first place.

There's no reason why the government should collect trillions of dollars for the sake of savings and retirement and not show a single cent of interest. Heck, forget about the interest, they don't even have the principle anymore!

Answer 4

That's the way it is supposed to be. Unfortunately, Congress has been throwing IOUs into the SS fund almost from its inception. If Congress hadn't borrowed the money (or at least repaid it), SS would not be in the mess it is in.

Answer 5

It cannot be. The government cannot save money in a bank. The government has to guaranteed the bank. What if the bank defaults?
The government cannot put cash in a vault. It will lose money just sitting there.

Answer 6

It was until 1965 when Lyndon Johnson had it moved to the general fund and medicare added.
And yea it should have stayed separate.

Answer 7

It is.....and several presidents feel quite comfortable in using the total in the fund as an offset against the national debt.

In other words, collateral.

Answer 8

yes.