Question

[Avatar4321]

Does anyone honestly expect that:

Social security
Our 401Ks
Our Pensions

Are going to be around when we retire?

 

[amrchaos]

If we can minimalize spending and maximize government revenue, I think it is possible. It just will not do all the things it used to.

 

[chanel]

I'm scared. The NJ pension system is broke. Our 401Ks are in jeopardy And SS may not be available for anyone who has other income.

I'm more frightened for my children though. I am advising them to seek careers in govt. Federal employees may be the only ones taken care of when the bottom falls out..

 

[SuMar]

No, I don't expect any of those to be around. I have separate Money Market accounts and investments to fall back on.

 

[Flopper]

No, I don't expect any of those to be around. I have separate Money Market accounts and investments to fall back on.

I fully expect they will be around for many many years. If history is any gage, retirement plans are far more likely to expand rather than contract. We started with none. Later businesses offered defined benefit pension plans primarily to white collar workers. Later the plans were extended to blue collar workers and Social Security was added as a safety net. Unfortunately it grew into something a lot more. Then we added tax sheltered plans.

I'm sure many feel that due to increased government spending, one day we will wake up to find the treasury is out of money and government will be forced to end Social Security and other entitlement programs. This is not realistic. The ratio of national debt to GDP has been falling for 20 years. If this trend reverses we could see government austerity measures that could result in some reductions in all entitlement programs and other government expenses. But if the rest of the world follows the US and adds debt at a rate faster than economic growth, then worldwide inflation seems more likely. Either way, the programs would still be there, they just wouldn't be quite as good.

 

[Oddball]

Does anyone honestly expect that:

Social security
Our 401Ks
Our Pensions

Are going to be around when we retire?

Don't have the latter two and haven't counted on Socialist Insecurity being there for me since the late '80s.

 

[Rozman]

Does anyone honestly expect that:

Social security
Our 401Ks
Our Pensions

Are going to be around when we retire?

Social Security....No way,No how!
401k,Ira's....Yes, but thanks to Obama and company they wont be worth squat.
Pensions will disappear over the years with employers paying the employees a lump sum then they will be on their own....

 

[Flopper]

Does anyone honestly expect that:

Social security
Our 401Ks
Our Pensions

Are going to be around when we retire?

Social Security....No way,No how!
401k,Ira's....Yes, but thanks to Obama and company they wont be worth squat.
Pensions will disappear over the years with employers paying the employees a lump sum then they will be on their own....

As usually, you extremist go off the deep end. Because Social Security has problems certainly does not mean it's going away. In the coming years we will have more and more people retiring and less and less people working to pay social security taxes. It's that simple and has little or nothing to do with other government spending. The solutions being considered are well documented.

· Increase Social Security tax as much as 81%, which would raise employee contributions from 6.2 to 11.2%, which would solve the problem.
· Cutting early retirement benefits would partial solve the problem.
· Do an across the board cut in benefits by 30% by the year 2042 would also solve the problem.

The most likely course of action would be a combination of the above. I saw one possible solution, which would raise early retirement to 65 with a slight decrease in payments, increase Social Security tax from 6.2% to 8.5%, and an across the board cut of 5%. This would extend the life of Social Security to the end of this century. Anyway, Social Security can and will be saved. It’s just a matter of biting the bullet and doing it.