patrick.net

While it is possible for an individual to "save" money, it is impossible for a society to do so. At the society level all saving schemes are ponzi.

Expect the IRS to start going after independent contractors for their bull shit write-offs to reduce taxable income which includes SS at I recall 6.2%. And they'll go after W-2 employees and raise the SS pay in cap by a ton. The wife caps this out every year and those checks are a little bit nicer after that. Equates to a nice vacation once we clear the $138k income or whatever it is in not paying into SS.

The smartest move would be to go after high net-worth income people. Not go after them per se, but dangle a carrot to get them to not take their SS benefits for the rest of their lives once they hit that age. It's not a massive % of the population, but they likely will have the biggest payouts of SS recipients. Probably healthier and will live longer. Take one for the team and get a certain percentage towards say cap gains reductions or your 401k taxes or whatever taxes. Does Elon Musk "need" SS when he hits that age? Absolutely not.

My concern is the IRS is now going to get hyper focused on the middle class thinking that's where there's missing money. Then it got me thinking that we just sent $100B+ to a foreign country that is one of the most corrupt in the world.

Thing is once Boomers start dying in droves, which they're starting to, it will flatline at some point. It WILL go down probably below $2T for sure over the next decade

WookieMan says

Expect the IRS to start going after independent contractors for their bull shit write-off

Yep, those 87,000 new IRS agents are not going after the rich, they are going after Uber, DoorDash, Lyft, hairdressers, and construction workers. The non-politically connected high earners already get IRS attention and have for decades.

WookieMan says

The smartest move would be to go after high net-worth income people.

Nope, that would be to raise the cap and raise the age where one can collect SS. Means testing sounds great but would not save that much unless the "means" threshold gets lowered well into middle class territory.

It's completely absurd that social security has "cost of living increases". This is impossible in any real pension.

In my case, I send back every April roughly what I recieve in Social Security minus my Medicare "premium tax" of $329/month.

I'm fanatical about trying to avoid taxes; but it's hopeless for me eventually if I ever want to spend any of my investments.

Strangely a lot of my boomer friends are still working; they know that they can't get by on Social Security anyway; half of it goes to property tax in many places.

There is no 'pay now, get benefits later' kept in so called huge lump sum trusts that do not immediately have clusters of sociopaths scheming to parasitize or steal the money, and social security is no different. It's why you have to save your own money and not listen to the glib advertising from institutions.

European pension funds have been sacked, and as that news comes out over time, there will be chaos to pay. It is already happening with the Macron stuff in France. The solution is to keep postponing 'benefits' and murder the creditors in the meantime, which is the typical way out for the thieves.

As is typical of Government, they find a way to steal by pulling the wool over people's eyes.

That fact is, there is no such thing as a Social Security Trust 'Fund.' What the Trust Fund really represents is debt, because the Government (since LBJ) has raided Social Security annual surplus and replaced that with special Government IOU bonds that cannot be sold. The collected surplus money simply isn't there. So what can possibly replace the missing trust funds? Higher taxes, more created currency, and a reduction in benefits. (This is what's going on in France today)

A rare moment of honesty from the Clinton Administration back in 2000, as stated in the budget proposal for that year:

"The Social Security Trust Fund does not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury that, when redeemed, will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits or other expenditures."

Again, when you hear the Government or media talk about the SS Trust Fund, you'll know that they are lying. It simply does not exist.

When the government admits to a crisis and gives a year; they know they have achieved their first step: Put it in peoples heads there is a problem, oh, but don't worry the problem is so far off so don't fret it at all. Plenty of time to fix it; and good as new! Ha, silly fools!

The fact is the day of reckoning will come a lot sooner than they told you!

AND they know it; AND they already got you to except it.

AND: More and more people collecting and less and less people putting into the system. When the recession hits and even less people working expect SS to need an overhauled by 2026.

Who here has even stepped foot in a SS Office. I have: its all kids in there trying to get on disability!

casandra says

Who here has even stepped foot in a SS Office. I have: its all kids in there trying to get on disability!

You may be surprised if you poll your extended friends and family to find out that many more than you thought are on some sort of disability.