Social Security strained by early retirements

[touchring]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

If you can live on about $500 a week, (after taxes!), it should work out well. Work full time at your favorite fast food joint for $6.50 an hour and collect social security early...just don't get sick for a few years. Life is sweet - could you make that a double with cheese?

US$500 may not be worth much 5-10 years down the road. You'll be lucky if $500 can buy $250 worth of stuff 5-10 years from now.

The US is going to face a double whammy of high unemployment due to job losses to Asia, combined with high inflation due to a rapidly depreciating dollar.

[Rajiv]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

You are forgetting the COLAs in the SS payments

Beginning in 1975, Social Security started automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments. The change was enacted by legislation that ties COLAs to the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W).

Before 1975, beneficiaries had to await a special act of Congress to receive a benefit increase. The change means that inflation no longer drains value from Social Security benefits.

Automatic Cost-Of-Living Adjustments

July 1975 -- 8.0% July 1976 -- 6.4% July 1977 -- 5.9% July 1978 -- 6.5% July 1979 -- 9.9% July 1980 -- 14.3% July 1981 -- 11.2% July 1982 -- 7.4% January 1984 -- 3.5% January 1985 -- 3.5% January 1986 -- 3.1% January 1987 -- 1.3% January 1988 -- 4.2% January 1989 -- 4.0% January 1990 -- 4.7% January 1991 -- 5.4% January 1992 -- 3.7%

January 1993 -- 3.0% January 1994 -- 2.6% January 1995 -- 2.8% January 1996 -- 2.6% January 1997 -- 2.9% January 1998 -- 2.1% January 1999 -- 1.3% January 2000 -- 2.5%(1) January 2001 -- 3.5% January 2002 -- 2.6% January 2003 -- 1.4% January 2004 -- 2.1% January 2005 -- 2.7% January 2006 -- 4.1% January 2007 -- 3.3% January 2008 -- 2.3% January 2009 -- 5.8%

[Jay]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

If you can live on about $500 a week, (after taxes!), it should work out well. Work full time at your favorite fast food joint for $6.50 an hour and collect social security early...just don't get sick for a few years. Life is sweet - could you make that a double with cheese?

I would imagine that this will just push more people to work under the table if they can. Uncle Sam; cutting of its nose to spite its face. All of the excess tax and regulation coming down the pike is going to make for quite a raging black market and vast black money trading networks. India here we come.

[c1ue]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

You are forgetting the COLAs in the SS payments

Yes, you might have to forget about COLAs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/us...s.html?_r=2&hp

For the first time in more than three decades, Social Security recipients will not get any increase in their benefits next year, federal forecasts show.


The absence of a cost-of-living adjustment, calculated under a formula set by law, will be a shock to older Americans already hit by plummeting home values, investment losses and rising health costs. More than 50 million people receive Social Security.

“Most seniors have never been through a year in which there was no Social Security COLA,” said David M. Certner, legislative counsel at AARP, the lobby for older Americans. Beneficiaries have received automatic cost-of-living adjustments every year since 1975. The increase this year was 5.8 percent.

In theory, low inflation is good for people on fixed incomes

[Rajiv]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

That is not a policy decision but rather an artifact of deflation look again at Finsters FDI during 2008-2009, and the way CPI is calculated after the changes in the methodology since 1980

[wayiwalk]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

SS payouts will either be diminished by a higher tax rate for those who need less (ie, those with savings) or as the post above notes, through not keeping up with the rate of inflation.

The threshold for action by the politicians will be when the stories of seniors eating (fill in the blank with any type of really cheap canned food or pet food) and starving start to fill the media.

Remember the late 70s and 80s? Stories like that filled the media.

The simple solution that the federal gov't will take is to diminish payouts (note, this will also apply to medicare/medicaid) and minimize the growth of the federal debt.

If you're a senior on your own, and dependent on the gov't, all I can say is - not a pleasant outlook.

[c1ue]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

That is not a policy decision but rather an artifact of deflation look again at Finsters FDI during 2008-2009, and the way CPI is calculated after the changes in the methodology since 1980

Some might say that the steps which lead to changes in CPI calculation is a policy decision.

Especially given the government's unsurprising need for reducing expenses in a time of declining tax revenues.

Doubly so if the iTulip predicted inflation indeed starts in late 2009/2010; a whole year of price inflation not accompanied by entitlement COLA increases.

[Spartacus]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

solutions:

work for cash (stock up on the steroids - lots of cash jobs require manual labour - but for seniors this shouldn't be a problem, since doctors will prescribe stuff to seniors that would get kids locked up for years)

get paid in gold & declare your payments as the face value of the coins (do you even need to tell the gov you're being paid in Gold? probably not, just the currency's face value)

if you have no income you can retire and collect ss. but if you earn any income while collecting ss the amount of the income is for all practical purposes subtracted from your ss payments.

what, you thought ss was your money... like in an ira... just because the gov't took it out of your income for 40 yrs while you worked? :mad:

[Kadriana]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

solutions:



get paid in gold & declare your payments as the face value of the coins (do you even need to tell the gov you're being paid in Gold? probably not, just the currency's face value)

Wasn't there already a case where some tried that and is now spending a lot of time in jail?

[santafe2]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

Wasn't there already a case where some tried that and is now spending a lot of time in jail?

We discussed that here some months ago. Now he's facing a few years in jail..:rolleyes:. As far as the government is concerned, you're no different than the shoe bomber if you start paying your employees in gold as if it was a useless relic.

Robert Kahre faces up to 296 years in prison and fines of up to $14 million...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009...ahre-tax-frau/

[Spartacus]

Re: Social Security strained by early retirements

the crimes they're paying for seem to have nothing to do with the Gold and Silver per se, but with lying on tax filings and tax evasion

the same stunts with fiat money would be crimes

We discussed that here some months ago. Now he's facing a few years in jail..:rolleyes:. As far as the government is concerned, you're no different than the shoe bomber if you start paying your employees in gold as if it was a useless relic.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009...ahre-tax-frau/