You can look at the financial health of Social Security in many ways. The official version, found in the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees' annual report, is this: Social Security's total income is projected to exceed its total cost through 2019, as it has since 1982. After 2019, interest income and money taken out of reserves will provide the resources needed to offset Social Security's annual deficits until 2034. By then, if Congress does nothing, the federal government will collect enough in payroll taxes to pay about 75 percent of scheduled retirement benefits until 2090. The Social Security Administration projects that unfunded obligations will reach $11.4 trillion by 2090. That's up $700 billion from the $10.7 trillion the administration projected for its 2089 shortfall. Infinite horizon Despite the huge numbers, there's even a less generous way of looking at the fiscal shortfall... http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/social-securitys-looming-32-trillion-shortfall.html
Seriously, no one cares. I think the only way you can force change is to wait until we're in a full blown crisis.
Actually one should care as you shouldn't pin your hopes, as many have been forced into doing, on Social security income. It may be paying 80 - 90 cents on the dollar today and it may be paying 60 - 70 cents on the dollar in 20 years. An intelligent course of action is to open a Roth IRA and manage it so that SS, whatever that may be in one's future, is a "stipend".. - Don't quit your day job - Don't use leverage - Open a Roth IRA - Sometimes money is made by sitting in cash - Don't be a hostage to the markets - let the markets, profitability of the U.S. economy work for you
I'm a gen x'er and pretty much no-one in my generation intellectually expected SS to pay out much of anything from the time we entered the workforce 20 years ago. I presume the generations after us are even more pessimistic. Of course understanding that intellectually and actually putting money into your IRA are two entirely different things, but while a lot of us will be dismayed when they don't get current rates for SS it would be unfair for us to act surprised.
Totally agree.....it seems that's the only time something is done...once its a full blown crisis is when you can force change until then everything about the debt ceiling...social security running out ...etc etc will stay in place until it no longer works....I have heard the same thing over and over about social security yet not a damn thing has been put in place to fix it....just like the failing infrastructure of the US, wait till its fully broken to come in and fix until then let it fall apart...