My proposal for saving Social Security

[Guest]

First off, I believe SS shouldn't exist in the first place. Destroying it outright won't work for another 20-30 years until all those old new deal codgers that get mobilized and outraged by the battle cry of "OOOOH NOO, THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY" die off.

Streamlining and upgrading the efficiency of Social Security

Allow people to opt-out of the SSN program if desired.
For ID, add Passport # as an alternative ID# for all state and federal applications, providing ITID for tax purposes to opted out individuals
Allow people in the program to keep their SSN for ID purposes if they wish OR have it deleted and go to pp# and ITID

The people who opt out tend to be free thinkers who will provide for themselves financially. They do not NEED SS. They will save hundreds of thousands of dollars over their working careers which will go back into the economy. These people also tend to be highly charitable. They will also have more money to provide for their parents and families in times of need- lessening the need for and draw on SS.

The people who remain in tend to not plan ahead for the future. These people need SS. They will pay in over their lives and receive when they retire.

Means testing- no withdrawl if you are above a certain income level.

If a person paying into SS dies, their family receives most of the money they have paid in, as a lump sum. Presto- SS also becomes life insurance.

Stop other government programs from pulling out of SS. Seriously. Stop that crap.

With people opting out, less people means less money required to run the program. It can be streamlined and operated more efficiently.

Money paid into SS isn't paid out immediately. Instead it is placed in government bonds for 10 years.

[Fly320s]

"First off, I believe SS shouldn't exist in the first place. "

-Double Darn Ditto

"With people opting out, less people means less money required to run the program."

-Yes, but that also means less money going in to support the program.  Remember, this is a pyramid scheme.  We people at the bottom, who aren't making withdrawals, are supporting the people at the top.  

We will never be released from this social taxation.

[Waitone]

My prediction about "retirement."

Social security will become a black hole.  It will become the center piece of a national retirement program elements of which are as follow:
--401-K's and IRA will be pulled into the black hole with the claim that SS is running in the red because of the evil boomers.  They created the problem just by daring to live so it is entirely justified to confiscate their private retirement programs to salvage the mess that they created.
--Major company retirement programs will be off-loaded on the PBGC.  United just pulled it off, Delta, USAir, and any other US company with heavy union // worker retirement system will dump.  GM will head down that road fairly quickly followed by Ford then Chrysler.  Auto makers in particular will claim they can't compete internationally because their competition does not pay for private retirement systems.  Once that claim sticks the move will be on for national healthcare for precisely the same reasons.
--Smalller companies seeing the what the big boys do will do the same thing only congress will step in and stop it by creating a PBGC-lite program where smaller business can sell their retirement programs to the government.  All this will be done in the name of international competitiveness.
--The federales will run the planet's largest fund of slush capital which will help out with deficit financing for a short period of time.  

All private retirement capital will be consumed in an effort to salvage the national retirement system.  The attempt will fail.  The consequences of failure will be there is no retirement.  People, particularly boomers, will have to work in some capacity until they rot.

I am not being conspiratorial.  I am being logical and rational.  I see the patterns developing now.

Flame away!

[Fly320s]

No flame here, I think you're right.

And to support all of that tax rates will rise, benefits will decrease, and the people in the middle will feel it the most.

[Phantom Warrior]

Frankly, SS is a joke.  It won't work to try and get rid of it half way.  Like others have commented, it's a pyramid scheme.  Allowing all the people who stand to make more by themself to pull out of SS won't work.

Ideally, we should be able to do whatever we want with our retirement money.  Include waste it.  Anyone can take care of themself if they try.  I heard a great story on the radio the other day about a washerwoman in the South somewhere who washed laundry for 50 cents a load all her life.  She put a little money in a savings accounts every week.  One day she checked and it was worth $250,000!!!  It was so much she gave $150,000 to endow a scholarship at a college because she didn't need it all.  Of course, the fact that she didn't "need" that $150,000 indicates she was a frugal and financially smart woman.

Realistically, there is no way that will happen.  If anyone so much as SUGGESTED getting rid of SS all the stories of poor elderly people struggling to make ends meet will be trotted out.  Overlooking the fact that if they could have invested all the money they paid into SS they would be better off.  (W/ the exception of people who got in really early and have gotten a lot out after paying very little in.)

Personally, I think the only hope is to mandate personal accounts.  Continue paying SS to anyone older than a cut off age.  Maybe as young as 18.  Because everyone who's every put money into it will want their share.  And then start mandating a savings account or conservative bonds/stock portfolio or what have you for everyone else.  And require they put what ever percent goes to SS now into that account.  Then, in fifty years, everyone would be financing their OWN retirement, they would actually have a real return on their investment, and they would have an asset to pass on to their heirs or charity.

The cost would be murderous while the government still had to pay SS to everyone w/o money coming in.  But trying to keep this pyramid scheme propped up is a bad idea and it's only going to get worse.

[Sindawe]

Because everyone who's every put money into it will want their share.

Speak for yourself, not I.  Even though I've only working "professional" in the areas that interest me for about 15 years, the combined theft from myself and my employers would purchase a modest home free and clear.  Even so, let me out now, no further theft from me or my employers and I'll write it off as "a weekend of cheap booze, fast women and good chemicals".  Frankly, even when I reach the age of official retirement in 30 some years, I'll not draw on SS (assuming its still around) since I've made plans and investments on the assumption that it will NOT be there.  And even though I'm "entitled" to draw some time in the future, I know it'd be stealing from those still below the age of eligibility.

I've had a thought on SS for years now.  I know I'll be comfortable when I reach the age of drecrepatude (ie: I will not starve, or freeze), and I've thought of finding a younge, struggling family or three and paying THEM the funds that I may draw, to make up for what is stolen from their paychecks.