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Originally Posted by Yakk
Then, there is no SS shortfall. You can spend general revenue on SS.
If SS is part of general revenue, then
1> Over 40% of Bush's tax cuts have been aimed at the richest 1% of America
2> In many states, the tax burden on the working poor has increased since 1980 -- no tax cuts for them.
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First off......what??????
Unless you define "working poor" differently than I do, #2 just doesn't work.
Also, what does SS revenue have to do with tax cuts and your claim?
The shortfall lies in the ratios as I have explained here several times. Do you see how the ratio is spiralling into oblivion? Forget about revenues. Forget about surplus, shortfalls, tax cuts, whatever.....look at the ratio. Almost the entire problem lies there. Shortly, a family with two working adults will have to cough up enough money in SS taxes to support one person receiving SS payments. The system just isn't set up to handle ratios this small, it is WAY TOO MUCH of a burden on the "working" people.
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Huh, how is it a trick of accounting?
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Because there is no surplus, except on the books. Just because my ledger says one thing, actual cash on hand is what matters.
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Bush's plan is to divert money going into social security into a privatized system of personal accounts.
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Correction:
Bush's plan is to divert A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE money going into social security into a privatized system of personal accounts.
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Finally, note that the social security shortfall shouldn't be any larger than the modest tax cuts Bush has pushed for.
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What?!?!
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Second question: has the SS tax not generated enough surplus to last well past 2038?
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Answer: nope, the so-called "surplus" is non-exitant, it exists on paper only in the form of an IOU,
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First of all, if you took your money, and invested it in the market, there would be a good chance you'd have next to no money, right now. Many people lost their shirts and went bankrupt.
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And many more people made even more money during the last few years. The people that went broke did it because they invested poorly. Hell, you could play the market short and still make money on a stock going down.
Anyway, this plan has nothing to do with playing short. The idea is that the money is invested in the market long-term. A long-term investment into the market, made with common sense, will always yield better results than anything else.
SS used to have a very attractive rate of return. Now, it doesn't have shit for a return. My kids get a better return on their little savings accounts than I could with SS.
Combine the sinking return rates with spiralling ratios and you have a system ready to go kaboom. Even if the last round of tax-cuts were reversed, it wouldn't save SS.