Need help explaining the Social Security Trust Fund?

[jtown1123]

Probably one the best, most simple explanations of the Social Security Trust Fund from LA Times columnist, Michael Hiltzik. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20100808,0,1359956.column

[dkf]

1. Of note is that the only bonds held in the fund are the surplus amounts that weren't paid out to

Beneficiaries. So if you put in 5 dollars but only 4 dollars got paid out to your grandparents and their friends only, 1 dollar was put into the bonds that the regular budget borrowed from the trust funds. So of all the money you added to the fund a much smaller amount is represented by bonds that are owned and owed to us by us.

When social security runs out of the surplus that is represented by the bonds we owe to ourselves, that is what is being referred to as the trust fund running out of money. The question is if we need to pay the surplus bonds from regular taxes how can we afford that and all the rest of the stuff we are responsible for? Also at the time the surplus bonds run out of money the ratio of workers to retirees will be worse than at any other time in the programs history.

[suston96]

2. The solution to any Social Security shortfall - real or imagined........

....JOBS....JOBS.....JOBS....

Guess where the money comes from......JOBS.....JOBS.....JOBS>

As population grows, JOBS must grow. Imagine 9% unemployment with tens of millions unemployed - most of whom will need to be fed and sheltered.

Unless that unemployment drops down to 6% Social Security will be the least of our worries.

I have bookmarked the OP link. Good one and thanks.

Edit: Should have been a reply to the OP.

[RB TexLa]

6. That and less medical research. How old do we have to live to anyway?

[Bitwit1234]

3. What would put social security in the black for the next 100 years

is just pay what ONE president used to balance his budget. Reagan..if you pay that back with the interest it lost just think......that's why social security does not have as much money as it should....presidents took the money OUT TO BALANCE THE BUDGET AND USE FOR OTHER STUFF LIKE WAR WAR WAR WAR.

[dkf]

4. Personally I think overfunding social security was a scam to get lower income people

To pay more taxes. They knew at the time that when the funds were needed there wouldn't be enough workers to pay for retirees. It really beats me why they thought a worker who couldn't afford to pay for all the retirees could pay for them anyway under the premise that they were obligations for these bonds we owe to ourselves.

[eridani]

5. Not enough workers to support retirees and other dependents? That's just silly

Do massive increases in productivity over the last 70 or so years count for nothing? You might as well say that the shrinking number of farmers means that we are all going to starve.

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. Whether or not that was the intent, that's demonstrably the effect.