Fixing(?) Entitlements

Raising the cap is a lot better than raising the retirement age. Even though people are living longer the wear and tear on the body on a lot of manual labor jobs hasn't changed since social security was implemented.

Can't design a whole system around the portion of the workforce aged 65-70 who remain in physical labor jobs.

My perspective is simple - when the program was conceived the retirement age was set such that there was a 7 year gap between retirement and life expectancy (death). And it was set with a cap of $100K because that was a shitload of money at the time.

Update both to today's terms. Take life expectancy minus 7, that's the new retirement age (72). And take the cap and inflate it to today's dollars ($250K or so). Both factors together return the program to a) what it was intended to be all along and b) solvency.

Don't cherrypick, you expose your political bias. Both should be done, otherwise it's gerrymandering the original intent of the program.

Or you could privatize it - let us choose our own investments and we'd all be way better off.

Or you could privatize it - let us choose our own investments and we'd all be way better off.

This is my suggestion as well as raising the age to a more reasonable level to accommodate the rise in life expectancy.


Good stuff from everybody here...I just think this issue needs to raised with more urgency.

This is my suggestion as well as raising the age to a more reasonable level to accommodate the rise in life expectancy.


Good stuff from everybody here...I just think this issue needs to raised with more urgency.

It does. Right now the only people that feel the urgency are financial professionals and those with an understanding of the time value of money. It's just not a large enough percentage of the population to motivate the votes on the hill.

GW Bush tried in 2005 to partially privatize and allow us to divert portions to our own preferred investments as individuals. It died on the hill, even with a Republican controlled house, and then when 2006 midterms came the Democrats took control of the house and his proposal was effectively squashed. It was such a shame because it truly would have made an immense difference - my retirement account is healthy today because I can invest it into targeted date funds - everyone could have done the same with SS under Bush's plan. But when people hear the program won't become insolvent for another 25 years, even Republicans pushed off the vote.

Such a lack of foresight. That was our best chance to do something. Now we can be assured nothing will happen until it's nearly too late.

Or you could privatize it - let us choose our own investments and we'd all be way better off.

Not true. Yes you might be very good at it but be honest ,do you really think many Americans understand the market and investing?

Not true. Yes you might be very good at it but be honest ,do you really think many Americans understand the market and investing?

This is off the top...but say if you could pool with others to buy into approved funds that look only long with multi-layer low risk products? What about percentage based options with which puts a governor on trading and/or the amount of the nest egg that could be in market?

You certainly don't want day traders messing with this shit.

My issues are when Joe Schmoe is healthy enough to work a full time job, but lazy and gaming the system. People that do that often seem to run in family circles.
I had an employee who had a couple cousins, females in their mid 30's who were on social security disability, claiming to have fibromyalgia. I gave them both all expense paid vacations to Vegas complete with cash to gamble with in exchange for help working a couple conventions promoting our products.

I spent a better parts of 2 weeks with these women and neither showed one sign of being less than perfectly healthy.

As for the welfare fraud I have worked with plenty a guy who fathered children out of wedlock, one guy had 5 , lived with the mother who was collecting welfare on the children he fathered all while he had a full time job that paid a livable wage.

I have just seen too much of this in my small world to not think it strains the system.

Eh, everyone knows someone who knows someone who does something, etc. It's anecdotal stuff.

Medicare billing fraud is a much bigger issue and puts more strain on the system than Joe Schmoe.

Besides, everyone complains about how hard it is to get social security disability in the first place right? That's because it is hard to get. Even people with disabilities have good days, good weeks, etc. And there's the mental conditions that you don't necessarily see.

This is off the top...but say if you could pool with others to buy into approved funds that look only long with multi-layer low risk products? What about percentage based options with which puts a governor on trading and/or the amount of the nest egg that could be in market?

You certainly don't want day traders messing with this shit.


Thank you for proving my point. You think the majority of American across the country know what you just said?

Not true. Yes you might be very good at it but be honest ,do you really think many Americans understand the market and investing?

When there’s cash at stake people figure out a way.

And besides, I don’t like the idea of robbing those with half a brain an opportunity for the sake of those without one at all.

Thank you for proving my point. You think the majority of American across the country know what you just said?

Look at it this way, I often hear folks complain when the market is doing well...that it is "only" working for a certain class of people (which isn't completely true, but whatever) so if you could educate and get folks to participate who in the past didn't, you could really open up a group of people to a new experience which could motivate them to invest elsewhere.