Re: “The US Likely Has 8 Years—At Most—Before Crisis”

On 6/21/25 09:15, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Robert Carnegie  <rja.carnegie@gmail.com> wrote:

>
Is the crisis because the OAS fund cannot
pay elderly SS subscribers due to the government
pilfering it, or is it because the government
pilfering has to stop when the money is all gone?

 The government pilfering is a problem, and it's been happening since
Reagan.
 The aging population is also a problem, with fewer younger people paying
into the system as more aging people are paid by it.  (And yes, higher
immigration rates can fix this one.)
 Some people have made the argument that mathematically, if the cap on
income was removed from the social security witholdings, so that
billionaires were paying at the same percentage rate as millionaires
instead of the same amount, that it would solve the current OAS deficit
problem.  This is true, and it's certainly a good plan from any viewpoint
except that of the very rich, but it's also kicking the can down the road
a bit since eventually the very rich are likely to get paid back a good
portion of that a generation later.
--scott
 

The very rich if they must depend on Social Security will be given a higher
limit than the very poorly compensated but will be capped at about a $1,000,000
per year.  That will be true no matter how much they earned in the qualifying
period. Billionaires who are broke enough to need Social Security will be stuck
at that Million per year.   But with the inevitable inflation the poor may approach
this level with COLA raises.  I don;t expect to be around to see this so good luck
to the young folks.
bliss