By your definition all insurance is a ponzi scheme. Compare Social Security to other annuities and it is the best one out there. There is no reason the wealthy shouldn’t pay the same percentage of their earned income as the rest of us. They’ll get more benefits from it in the end anyhow as they live 7 or 8 years longer
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Apparently you don’t understand how Social Security is supposed to work. It is not part of our deficit (I don’t know why Clark even mentioned that here.) When it was originally designed the money in the Trust Fund was supposed to be loaned to the general fund with interest. In my opinion they aren’t paying enough interest but that is another issue. Loaning the money to the general fund is not why we are running out. In fact is the money generally loaned out which is running out. In other words, we loan less and less each year.
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Are you going to remove the cap on the benefit side as well ?
No…I pay for insurance now and I can receive a benefit now so its not the same. I recognize your wealth envy…its a very popular position. The IRR of Social Security seems to be around 5% from my research. I am not sure how that compares to other annuities, but its far below what the market returns.
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But entitlements, subsidies, and tax breaks for the wealthy and for corporations are just fine, right? Especially since they lobbied Congress to get the laws written in their favor.
Clark Howard brought up the Social Security situation on last Monday’s edition of The Clark Howard Show.
I doubt if they lobbied. It was mostly quid pro quo mutual favors
Most annuities don’t work that way and annuities are insurance products. And you do receive a benefit now. You get disability insurance. Market returns are certainly higher, they are also more risky. You may recall that Social Security was started as a consequence of a market crash and were reminded in 2008 of why it is so necessary. If the money we have invested in Social Security was in the Market it would become even more bloated. I don’t ‘envy’ the wealthy, but I am concerned about the growing cap between the rich and the poor. I’m not persuaded a CEO works any harder than a roofer.
Don’t have to. Social Security was approved by SCOTUS as a tax. Since the wealthy live 10-15 years longer they will collect more in the end anyhow.
If working hard was a path to wealth, roofers and ditch diggers would be rich
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Very little money is actually printed these days. How much is in your wallet? I got $50. In any case, Social Security and Medicare A are among the very few programs that are fully paid for and not part of our national debt. In any case, the Fed controls the money supply and right now it is tightening it.
If you are arguing that our tax code is too complex and subject to corruption and special interests…then I totally agree. I much prefer a simple flat tax system. Your issue on tax breaks is with Congress…not the people or corporations. Its always an interesting discussion when people that pay almost nothing in taxes complain about the entities paying 95% of the taxes.
You can’t stop the wealth gap growing…its simple math. Unless of course you want a socialist form of government that equalizes outcomes. The CEO does infinitely more for the economy than the roofer. I wont argue that they work any harder…thats a fair point.
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It would be nice if you would expound on you brief statement. The only fact he stated was the robbery of the funds in the SS Fund, which isn’t a real lock-box type fund, but just an item listed on the balance sheet. “Wong” is a subjective word and not definitive.
Just curious what harder means? Roofing is a tough job. I can and have done some roofing and I know a number of roofers, some quite wealthy to boot, but I couldn’t be a CEO of a major company. Mist anyone has the ability to be a roofer, few, very few, have the ability to be a CEO, And even less are Good CEOs. By your definition if “hard work” one could assume you mean a roofer could be run and be responsible for a multi billion dollar company. I don’t think so! Nothing against roofers or any profession, we need them all, but they are not all equal in many ways. The Atlanta Business Chronicle used to run an annual report on how much a CEO added or subtracted to the stock value. A CEO can do roofing but a roofer would be a stretch to do CEO work. It’s not how “Hard” the work is, it about the Ability to do the work. Desire, effort, initiative, integrity and other good virtues are always a factor, but they are the same as Ability.
I’ve met lots of folks on mahogany row in lots of businesses. They were just average folks with average abilities. I know people right now who own banks and 100+ employee businesses and, aside from their status in their business careers, there is nothing overly impressive about them. If there’s a common thread among them it is their consistent in the use of plain old common sense.
CEOs are largely the beneficiaries of status, persistent hard work, and luck and their personal impact on the performances of the businesses they are associated with is typically far overrated.
The situation is similar to the “gifted financial advisor” myth prevalent today.
From PBS.org:
“The median pay package for CEOs rose to $16.3 million, up 12.6 percent, according to data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar. Meanwhile, wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers rose 4.1 percent through 2023.”
Another reason to make careful tactical Roth IRA conversions and aim to get rid of tax deferred money over your lifetime.
Clark–the solution is very simple: Collect tax on ALL income. Currently, the maximum income subject to Social Security tax is $176,100. This is lofical and equitable.
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Actually, if you taxed all income… you might even be able to lower the payroll deduction rate overall for everyone.
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