The Skinny on Social Security
By Michael I. Niman, ArtVoice 2/10/05
The corporate media has been making a lot of noise lately about the
so-called "Social Security crisis." And those in the alternative media
have been assuring us that there is no crisis, based on interviews
conducted with a plethora of economists both in government and academia.
Here are the facts. Lots of Americans were born during the 15 or so
years following the end of World War Two. We call this the baby boom.
Boomers have demographically passed through time like a big fat rat
flushed down the toilet, clogging public schools, colleges and
ultimately the job market with their mass. The big fear is that
ultimately when this demographic blip reaches retirement age in about
ten years, they'll burst the Social Security pipeline and throw the
system into ruin.
Social Security administrators, however, saw this blip coming a
generation ago, and adjusted payroll taxes so that the payroll system
would run a surplus - enough to support itself until the last of the
baby boomers die of old age.
Here are the numbers.
At this point (2028 or later), Social Security will dig into the nest
egg it built up specifically for the purpose of getting over this
hump. The trustees, including a number of Bush administration cabinet
officials, predict that this nest egg will be depleted in 2042. The
Congressional Budget office predicts this will occur in 2052.
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.