Social Security will celebrate its 75th birthday this Saturday, but the retirement program's fiscal health is fading. Last week the trustees' report revealed it's running deficits much sooner than expected. Basil Venitis, an Athenian orator, points out Social Security is the largest government program in the world, accounting for 23 percent of the federal budget. The Social Security tax is the largest tax the average American family pays. Indeed, nearly 80 percent of Americans pay more in Social Security taxes than they do in federal income tax. And, millions of seniors depend on Social Security for their retirement income.
There is no danger that Social Security will cut benefits for current retirees, but the report makes it quite clear that the program cannot afford to pay younger workers the same level of benefits their parents and grandparents enjoyed. This reality makes it even more essential that all of today's workers have the opportunity to build retirement savings that will combine with their Social Security benefits to provide a comfortable standard of living in their retirement years.
Social Security will spend more on benefits this year than it takes in in revenue. The program begins to run a permanent cash-flow deficit. Trust fund accounting only obscured the dismal financial truth. It is long past time that politicians faced facts and reformed Social Security, preferably by allowing younger workers to save a portion of their Social Security taxes through personal accounts.
Any worker born after 1970 will reach full retirement age after the trust fund is exhausted. Unless Congress acts soon, younger workers can look forward to paying full Social Security taxes throughout their careers only to receive 78 percent or less of the benefits that have been promised to them. In addition, younger workers will have to pay to re-fund the surpluses that have been borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, an expense that will total almost $6 trillion by the time the trust fund is exhausted in 2037.
Accounts of any size need to grow for about 20 to 25 years before they are large enough to pay much in the way of retirement benefits. Benefit changes are politically feasible only if current retirees and those close to retirement are not affected, which means that it would be at least 10 years before changes take effect. While tax increases would immediately pump money into Social Security, that Band-Aid would just delay the start of real long-term reform and make it much easier for Congress to continue taking the easy way out.
We need to wean people off the state pension game. It's a giant Ponzi scheme that sooner or later will become bankrupt. There used to be five working age people supporting each pension; now there are two, and in the future that number will shrink. It cannot go on.
The issue of retirement in Europe has become a tiring debate. Governments know their pension funds will not last much longer, yet no country's population seems willing to give up their right to retire before 70. The European Commission has ambitiously suggested that the general retirement age in Europe be gradually raised to 70 by the year 2060. It also calls for no more than a third of adults to be in retirement in the future.
Venitis notes that in Greece, the most corrupt on Earth, you could easily retire at forty. All you have to do is give a kickback of 3,000 euros to a certifying State physician, who will lie to the State Insurance Organization(IKA) that you are handicapped! Part of this kickback goes up to the general inspectors and examiners. Nobody cares, nobody gives a damn for all this fraud. There are many villages and towns with all inhabitants declared handicapped! IKA grabs half a Greek's salary, but gives very little in return. Graecokleptocrats churn IKA's funds in order to generate commissions and kickbacks!
The Greek government controls the pension funds, the nest eggs of unions, and the Greek Treasury. Venitis muses this is putting the wolf in charge of the chicken! Graecokleptocrats select those money managers and brokers who return part of their fees and commissions as kickbacks to them. This is heightened when large volumes of trades go through consistent law-breakers such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs who know how to churn the accounts and generate a lot of commissions and kickbacks.
Basil Venitis wants to abolish State insurance. You should be free to save and invest your money as you judge best. There shouldn't be State Insurance to seize big part of your income every year and tell you it's for your own good, or someone else's. There should be therefore no funding problem. Whether you want to retire or keep working should be your decision. How much you save for the future should be up to you.
Of course, some people will plan poorly or just won't earn enough to retire on, but the government may not pretend that this is anyone else's fault or responsibility. Those who can't afford to retire must work when they are older, or rely on family or private charity. No one should get the government to coerce others to pay for his retirement.
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