Social Security

Link: Safeguarding The Promise and of Social Security
         Et tu, Jack Lew?

Summary: According to federal law, Social Security must be invested to on a daily basis. These "trusts" grow with interest and are backed by the full faith and credit of the government. According to the Obama administration, there is no problem. Jack Lew, the Office Management and Budget Director, says that at the rate social security is being taken now, at earlier ages, will only last until 2037. Where does this leave the young people paying into the system now? The system is already in the red, but who knows how it will turn out in the future.

Relevance: Early in the year, we learned that Social Security is a program that is mandated by the federal government as a program that they MUST fund because it is mandatory spending. The government must spend a certain amount of the federal budget on it, and currently spends about 20.8% of the budget on it. The amount can increase of decrease, but the government must spend the money. This is also relevant to when we studied the federal budget. If the budget is not approved we could face a government shutdown. Congress must approve the budget, which includes mandatory and discretionary spending.

Opinion: I feel that if it is predicted that the Social Security program will be bankrupt by the time I am eligible to take benefits that it is worthless to pay into. It would be much better to an investment account that I would not be able to get into until retirement. Social Security is pretty much worthless to people who can save millions before they can retire. It seems that if you make and save above a certain amount of money by the time you retire, at least $1.5m, then social security does nothing for you. I believe that it wastes the money of those who do not use it later. I pay into Social Security now, 6.2% of every check, and I fear I may never see that money again.