Let Them Go Bankrupt, Soon

One of these days, maybe Newsweek will deal with the journalistic stink bomb of an aging, discredited economist. This column is little more than the admonitions of a nanny. Donate your textbook royalties to charity, Mr. Samuelson, and try living on social security.

President Obama is trying to deal with the demographic issue through reform of health care and by re-regulating the financial system that gambled away trillions in retirement plans. Not with much help from Mr. Samuelson - see his later column, "Why Obama's Wrong on Health Care." Good thing Obama has smarter people than Samuelson working for him.

It's easy to put old people on ice floes to starve to death if you're an Eskimo and the seal hunt is lousy.

You don't really have that excuse when this country is sitting on much of the world's cereal crops and mineral wealth. Not even if you're a Republican.

Wait until Generation X gets to retirement.

I think we will be retiring about 67 to 70, right?

That makes me about 2037 minimum.

I'd say 2039 to 2042 because I found this job in 1999.

And if the average male life expectancy hasn't changed..... 73? 74? Male babies born in 1970. It's a crap shoot. My parents died at 66. Heck, I might even be a net asset to the Social Security Administration.

I agree that the government has grossly mismanaged social security... they haven't even guarenteed a rate of return that will keep up with inflation. And they've certainly put their hands into the cookie jar too often.

But.. it's far too late to take any of that back now. Remove SS from the "general" fund and stop the cookie stealing first.
And when they do that.. pay back all the IOU's they left in ther so that it can stand alone.

Medicare is a way nastier issue, but nothing short of single payer (where you can control the costs) is ever going to fix that. Health care isn't optional.. you take the heart meds or you die. They can charge whatever the heck they want for them, you'll pay it.. especially if it's your kid or grandma. And even with single payer, you're going to have to limit benefits.

And yes, that's horrible. Most people aren't monsters, and nobody wants old people to die. But it really is hard to justify a $400,000 heart transplant for an 80 year old. That's a cost of $40,000 a year IF they live to be 90. And now for the elephant in the room...

Medicare is messing up SS. Retirees with nearly unlimited access to medical care live a lot longer... and collect social security for another 10 years.

Once again, no one wants old people to be poor, and no one wants them to die, (OK I have read stuff from a few potential crazies on here, but generally...)

But what's the answer? Tax all wages and earning period, no cap. Limit defense spending. Means test seniors, if you make 2x the current "median income" no SS check. You don't need it. Start single payer gov't run healthcare. It may not be as great, but it will be available to all, and a lot cheaper.

When will someone admit that our trust fund was stolen. Clinton saved 3 trillion and tried to put it back. Republicans wouldn't let him. Does anyone know what the baby boomers did? They put more money into the social security program in its history. Half of them died of overdoses, war, or just sickness. Where's their retirement? You people are so busy loving the golden cow, you aren't watching the chicken coop. And, don't blame it on the democrats. They invented the system and they always bring it back again.

Why doesn't someone admit that our trust fund was STOLEN? And admit that Clinton wanted to replace it with the 3 trillion he had saved?

How about this? Don't throw people away. Fix, or at least repair, Social Security! End the capping of FICA on payroll and take other appropriate measures. Oh, and fire Samuelson.

End Social Security and Medicare! Privitize social security and make it optional. And end medicare, we should not be wasting money on OLD PEOPLE. Tax dollars that could be spent of education should not be spent of pills for old people

Well.there is one way to cure SS blues,to reverse its cancer-style growth...

It all begun as a 1% tax. Today,it is ... 15.3%...

Let's reverse the progress,slightly & gradually lowering the tax rate & the monthly payments....

Realistically,we can bring it down to 10%,before the retirees complain too loudly...

Also,retirement age should follow the rise in average life expectancy.

These are about the limits of the deal...

What crap! You Sir are a disgrace to your profession, your name, and your nation! While I agree the current "compromise" is a disgrace, what needs to be done is fix the system, not dump it so the elite wealthy and powerful need have no fear of accidently helping someone! What needs to be done, is trash all other existing retirement plans, programs, corporate annuities, etc. and go for a straight compact between generations where workers pay a flat percentage of all of their income from all sources into a Social Security pool that is totally and completely distributed equally to all citizens over the age of 65. That would include Congressman, Presidents, Teachers, housewives, bums, plumbers, soldiers, Sailors, Lawyers, Financial Service Brokers, and even pundits like you!
It is way past time to look the Capitalist system in the eye and admit it has failed spectacularly not even considering the debacle of the last 2 years! It has created a transfer of wealth from productive workers to useless Capitalists, distorted the economy from producing for the well being of the society to creating deadening monopolies supported by corrupt politicians and a corrupt political process to extort and plunder the ???real??? wealth of the nation for the imaginary wealth of zeros in computers.
The Corporate Fascism has used marketing tactics and propaganda that would make Orwell seem Utopian! The citizens of America have been made into mindless consumers, prey for Evangelical racketeers, corporate greed and sleaze, and political opportunism of the mob ignorance and slavish dependency! The dreams of America???s founders are sinking below the slime of fear now reaching epidemic levels in the peoples of our nation.

I have a 91 year old relative who receives $3000 a month from the VA even though he never even served active duty in WWII, and all his healthcare is free. I have another 87-year-old relative who receives almost as much in Social Security per month as I take home in my paycheck and she too is getting expensive medical care free. The Greatest Generation not only gave birth to the Baby Boomers (who are blamed for their numbers as though they conceived themselves), now they're hanging on well past a normal old age at tremendous cost not just to 20-somethings but to Boomers themselves. I have seen my projected Social Security beneift decrease by one third in 10 years, because all this money is going to septua-, octo- and nonagenarians.

I had not heard those timeline projections. What am I paying money for? It's all going to run out the year before the current standard?!? Something has to be done. Change needs to be made. I am tired of the politics where the people (gov't) doesn't want to fight because the people currently headed into Social Security are better at swaying their representatives.

I don't feel there is a right to anything, yet, if I have to pay my hard-earned money (money that I could surely use) into this pool, there better be something more in it for me (and the millions of us suffering the release of our hard-earned dollars. Some of the answers are obvious to me, and I am not a political numbwat. The fight is getting ridiculous. All politicians have ideas on what needs to be done (such as raising the age where benefits are gained,) but too few seem to be willing to do the right thing. Why oh why, is there always a fight on the things that are so obvious. I agree; go broke now. That way the politicians will be able to save face with their constituents and make some rules that can apply and really help.

I recognize that the government has dipped into SS, and that has not helped the situation. However, as some people have suggested before, SS is a Ponzi scheme. Inflation makes it impossible for most people to withdraw only what they put in. Here are two examples:

Joe began working at age 16 and retired at 66 (50 years). He earned an average of $25,000 (typical blue collar worker - $5000 in 1955 and $45,000 in 2005). This means he earned $1,250,000 over his lifetime, 6.2% of which ($77,500) went into SS. 2% interest on his SS each year provides an additional $28,980, for a total of $106,479. If Joe retires at 66 and lives until age 80 (14 years), he will withdraw $7,606/year from SS, which is a check of $634/month. Should Joe get a check for more than $634 or live beyond 80, he will withdraw more money from SS than he put in, effectively bankrupting the system.

Bob began working at age 16 and retired at 66 (50 years). He earned an average of $50,000 (typical white collar worker - $10,000 in 1955 and $90,000 in 2005). This means he earned $2,500,000 over his lifetime, 6.2% of which ($155,000) went into SS. 2% interest on his SS each year provides an additional $57,958, for a total of $212,958. If Bob retires at 66 and lives until age 80 (14 years), he will withdraw $15,211/year from SS, which is a check of $1268/month. Should Bob get a check for more than $1268/month or live beyond 80, he will withdraw more money from SS than he put in, effectively bankrupting the system.

Sadly, I think we all realize that no one can live comfortably on just $1268/month, let alone $634/month. This means that SS can only really be an additional source of income???unless the system pays out more out to its recipients than they put in.

The 2% return on the money held by the government is simply not enough to cover the effects of inflation over the 50 years an average American works.

Political advice ???
1. I hate the idea, too, but raise the retirement age. Sorry, Boomers! A gradual increase is fine, but it needs to be raised.
2. Lose the SS salary cap. 6.2% for all wages, no exceptions. If my $40,000 salary is all SS taxed, your $500,000 salary should all be SS taxed, too. If we???re going to have income tax equality, everyone should be taxed at the same rate???don???t get me started on income taxes.
3. Gov???t general fund ??? get your hand out of the cookie jar. We have enough problems already.
4. Begin making SS a set of individualized accounts. Force people to realize how much they???ve put into the SS pot???and how much they should officially be allowed to take out of the SS pot.
5. Obviously ??? reform the system. Make the bums get jobs; care for those who can???t. Decentralize SS and make it local. I know the difference between bums and invalids in my neighborhood; someone in Washington doesn???t.

Only one thing can "fix" social security such that those of us who have lived up to our end of the deal can receive our just rewards. Congresss MUST revert social security funds back to beiong ONLY for social security, and not allow them to be used within the general fund for whatever. Secondly, stop paying out double payments to spouses that sat on their fat butts all their lives and dodn't go out and earn a living (even when they could) and now get a payment equal to what the eligible person gets.

Samuelson is a bright mind,but even he cannot offer a realistic solution...

Nor can we,the commentators...

SS is an incurable mess,like cancer.

We can only take some measures against it,for now there is no cure...