Baby boomers are collecting 265% of what they paid into Social Security

A median-wage worker retiring in 2027 can expect about $730,000 in lifetime Social Security benefits, compared with less than $200,000 paid in taxes by that worker and their employer combined

Adjusting the $200k for inflation, that's around $800k.

If anything, SS recipients should be getting back more than $730k. That's deferred consumption which was recycled through public spending into increased domestic growth. Growth that the vast majority of these workers never got to see, as their salaries fell behind the inflation rate.

But ask the editors of Fortune Magazine what they think of uncapping the Social Security tax, so it applies to people making more than $180k/year. Ask them how they feel about paying for SS directly out of the General Fund, rather than getting a special Poor Tax that can't be exempted through deductions and credits. Ask them how they feel about paying for SS out of an Equities Transaction Tax, such that trillionaires issuing the next round of IPOs take responsibility for the millions of senior citizens who they are brain-fucking with AI slop on a daily basis.

Social Security is the promise this country (kinda-sorta) makes to its elderly. If you worked your whole life, you won't be impoverished the day your employer doesn't consider you a value-add anymore. The taxation scheme for SS is fucked, but only because it taxes labor income rather than labor value. We've seen the gross wealth in this country rise from $2.2T to $167T between 1960 and 2027. And you're telling me we're running out of money to pay our retirees?

Fuck off. Anyone should be able to see through this bullshit.

So I guess Fortune magazine just discovered inflation today? Fuck your dumb oligarch divisive bullshit, the only problem with Social Security is that the wealthiest haven't been paying enough into it.

Oh, cool, a multi-prong attack on Social Security, just like I commented on that other article here on Social Security.

Get the younger generation all whipped up and butthurt about the "olds" collecting what is characterized as "too much". While the oligarchs bitch about "balancing the budget" by cutting services.

Instead of the fucking obvious option - lift the caps.

I wish I could downvote this article more than once.

That's... How it's supposed to work. Don't fall for the trap of getting mad at guaranteed income lol. You will regret it

Goddamn, I'm so sick of this bad faith argument. Fucking Fortune bullshit.

Remove the Social Security Cap on incomes over $184k and this problem goes away. It's really that fucking simple.

TAX THE FUCKING RICH ALREADY.

Here we go again with the doom & gloom propaganda. Social Security is literally the easiest problem in DC to fix. Just raise the income cap from $185.5K to $250K, or $500K, or $1 Million, or remove the cap altogether.

That's all it would take to solve the problem.

First of all, "there's no money for this" coming from the federal government is a lie, on any topic. They just don't want to, and take advantage of people not knowing how money works. There's always money for bombs, but for schools and social services not so much.

Second of all, as others have said, capping social security payments per year is stupid. It should be progressive. The first $x don't get taxed at all, then higher rates as your income goes high.

Third, it shouldn't be tied to your personal contributions. We live in a society, despite what anti social conservative monsters say.

The media sure is pushing the “cut social security and medicare” narrative this month — instead of pointing out that yearly military budget is $1 trillion.

Okay but you cannot take away the employer contribution for your math. That portion is part of your compensation.

That’s similar to doing math on 401(k) and taking out employer match. It doesn’t make sense. It’s YOUR money either way.

They could get rid of the cap on social security tax. It's pretty fucking low.

Their own graph illustrates how bullshit their own argument is:

In the text they are comparing taxes without interest at "less than $200,000" (aka as $197.000 or "almost $200.000" if the author weren't a ghoul) with benefits without interest at $730.000, without mentioning interest/inflation adjustment at all. Since taxes were paid decades before the benefits will be received, their accumulated interest is going to be much higher, which is illustrated well by the graph.

If the graph can be trusted, then with interest the break even point of contributions/benefits happens at 82 or 83 years of age. The usa life expectancy is 79 years. So according to their own data, the average boomer will have contributed more than they will receive. And that is with the current regressive taxation scheme, where high earners contribute less.

Let's be clear, every generation should get more than they put into it by working, because they're still paying taxes as well. Also, we all buy our own healthcare for the most part. This is a shitty, shitty, comparison.

Baby boomers are collecting 265% of what they paid into Social Security

Brief recap on how retirement savings work: you invest, and the money grows. See also: inflation adjusted dollars.

and millennials are paying the price

Fucking headslap. We have a basic understanding of how SS works. My kids will be “paying the price” for Millennials. This is nothing but inter generational rage bait.

I'm proud of Lemmy's response to this.

I expected "boomers bad", but found most comments calling out the bullshit.

I'm glad Lemmy sees through this. If they have to go into a skilled nursing facility and don't have really good insurance to pay and the copays and deductibles, they will be forced onto Medicaid (assuming it still exists), and the state will take their entire estate to pay for overpriced, subpar care. Eff all the way off with this noise.

And it will be the same for when millennials are old enough to collect. That's literally how it works. The fact that people are constantly trying to frame this, like it's some kind of scam, is infuriating. Stop bullshitting people.

Isn't that how Social Security is supposed to work? In 30 years it's going to be Gen A paying for millennials. It only has reserves because the trust fund was set up to cover the baby boomers because they knew it was a much larger generation. The trust fund was never intended to be a permanent fixture.

Honestly would include us genXers. Still working with no end in sight.

This is horseshit that should be deleted. Some VC billionaire is funding a campaign to make everyone hate social security so they can privatize it.

Budget watchdog

Three conservative 'bootstraps' penny-pinchers in a trenchcoat.

They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

That makes sense if you trust the inflation numbers the US has been putting out.

In truth, for 50 years real inflation, as measured by the old unchanged pre 1970's measures changed to yield lower numbers through hook and crook, have averaged 5-8% a year just by 2008.

In fact, by the old measure, social security checks would be worth on average 1,300 more a month just by 2008. Boomers are getting cheated, OP is just too, uh, ahem, misguided, to not be manipulated by the oligarchy.

https://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket/

Eliminate the cap or eliminate the fuckin problem

Not going to lie, I was upset when I saw the headline. Then I actually thought about it, and yeah, that sounds about right.

What in the fuck is benefits plus interest? Lol, fucking Christ.

Their own graph shows their taxes plus interest covers more than the cost of their benefits. Shut the fuck up.

Also using the non-interest, non-inflation adjusted sum with the current day dollar benefit amount and saying “it gets worse” as if they HAD done that then they just… give the same two numbers?

I… you’re supposed to be someone I listen to about financials? You can’t even fucking pretend you did any math?

Mmmm intergenerational battles among working class people... this is a good headline for the Epstein class

That's OK, I've been eavesdropping on older relatives and know which nursing homes are the worst. My retirement plan is to buy a gun and check out when I run out of money for rent/food/medicine.

Come and get some
Skinning the children for a war drum
Putting food on the table selling bombs and guns
It's quicker and easier to eat your young