re: Why should current seniors get a $1.00, or 100% of the loaf, and future seniors get zero?

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Why are making up shite. She was born in 1921. They were in their 30s when he began paying into SS. If I recall he was a daily laborer in construction. So probably a lot of cash payments involved

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Thus never paying much into SS.

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Millennials are ready to get fricked again

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How are millennials getting screwed again? What happened to them the first time? I’m a parent to 3 millennials and their lives have not been any different than the typical Baby Boomer or Gen X’er. The only difference with Boomers is there are a lot of them. You can blame the previous two generations for that.

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only difference with Boomers is there are a lot of them

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There are a lot of millennials too. GenX is the smallest of the 3.

I can appreciate that many millennials had some back luck. A lot of them graduated college into the 2008 downturn. They really caught the beginning of the soaring cost of college. Then when they were about the age to become homeowners real estate went crazy.

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You need to remove your personal experience of 3 kids and look consider the numerous macro economic changes that have negatively impacted millennials versus prior generations

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Business and real estate cycles are unique to millennials?

Or millennials have never cracked open an encyclopedia and if it isn't on their cell phone it never happened?

"Life is suffering" was coined 2500 years ago. Different millennials entirely.

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Business and real estate cycles are unique to millennials?

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2 real estate cycles that were unprecedented along with a Financial system collapse and then 10 years of inflation (to stop that crash from becoming a full on depression) are pretty unique. Then we had Covid and all the economic havoc and inflation that caused.

Your typical generation may deal with 1 or 2 of those events, but millennials have dealt with all of them. The 2008 crash alone (when many/most millennials were starting their careers) was terrible for their economic futures and caused irreparable damage on the macro level.

Income : Housing cost and Income : college cost are also pretty unprecedented.

*ETA: before this becomes a "stop blaming people for your failures", thanks to this board, I got ahead of 2008. Luckily I was running my own shop by 2020 and, while it derailed progress substantially and caused me to have to change gears, I was flexible enough to survive (unlike many). My comments aren't about me. They're about the macro situation.

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Every generation has its challenges.

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2008 was more than a challenge and significantly more impactful than anything you listed.

LINK

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The financial crisis split the generation into two distinct groups. Older millennials, who bore the brunt of the financial crisis dealt with a tough job market and wage stagnation, making it more difficult for them to save. Younger millennials, who experienced the recovery period, entered a better job market and became risk-averse by watching the recession unfold.

The generation overall, however, is plagued by financial problems that baby boomers didn't have to face at their age. From saving to spending and financial behaviors in between, here's what life is like as the average American millennial.

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Adjusted for inflation, the annual salary of a millennial today is an estimated 20% lower than the average salary for a baby boomer at the same age, according to a SmartAsset study that analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for millennials who were ages 16 to 34 in 2015.

But in today's high cost of living, salaries are no longer what they once were. While millennials have benefited from a 67% rise in wages since 1970, according to research by Student Loan Hero, this increase hasn't kept up with inflating living costs: Rent, home prices, and college tuition have all increased faster than incomes in the US.

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Despite millennials' best financial efforts, a large debt load on average is preventing them from saving as much as they'd like. While many don't carry credit-card debt or owe less than $5,000, nearly 45% of millennials have student-loan debt, Business Insider's Tanza Loudenback reported.

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The Unluckiest Generation in US History

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After accounting for the present crisis, the average millennial has experienced slower economic growth since entering the workforce than any other generation in U.S. history.

Millennials will bear these economic scars the rest of their lives, in the form of lower earnings, lower wealth and delayed milestones, such as homeownership.

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The losses aren’t merely symbolic. This recession steamrolled younger workers just as millennials were entering their prime working years — the oldest millennials are nearing 40 while the youngest are in their mid-20s. Millennial employment plunged by 16 percent in March and April this year, our calculations show. That’s faster than either Gen X (12 percent) or the baby boomers (13 percent).

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At the beginning of 2019, millennials became the largest generation in the United States’ full-time workforce, surpassing Gen X. But the coronavirus crisis walloped millennials so disproportionately that they’re on the precipice of giving the top generational spot back to Gen X.

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The Great Recession pushed young workers a few steps down the wage ladder. Research shows they never recovered, even as their older colleagues regained all the ground they’d lost. It’s happening again, to many of those same young workers.

In a 2019 working paper, Census Bureau economist Kevin Rinz used regional differences in the Great Recession’s severity to calculate that while millennial employment recovered from the Great Recession within a decade, millennial earnings never did. Building on earlier work from the University of California at Berkeley’s Danny Yagan, Rinz based his findings on more than a dozen years of annual data for more than 4.1 million people in a government database.

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Which is the point of the thread. The increase in full retirement age from the 1983 amendments extended the life of the fund by cutting benefits. They’ll have to do something similar again, which means current seniors are getting more benefits than future seniors are likely to see.

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I'm pretty sure the progression of benefits has been cut since the 50s.

There are many levers available to the government in terms of taxable income, gross income on top of social security, etc..

Changing benefits isn't new.

There hasn't been a lowering of retirement age.

Inflation was worse in the 70s. Gas lines. Unemployment.
Black Monday 1987.
SnL
Tech bust.
Japanese Flu.
9/11

And everything you have listed since 2008? Boomers and Gen Xers are experiencing right along with you.

Every generation has a narcissism about itself. That's why they make labels for each generation. Do you think Gen X was a compliment?

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if it goes belly up... what money is left to be converted into an ira? you realistically would've needed to be starting this decades prior.

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The plan is once we reach the rubicon where SS benefits out number the money coming in, benefits will be cut accordingly and that was written into law.

Now one thing I thought of since interest rates are high now why not create a Social Security Addon IRA that is government based using government bonds that pays a minimum 5% interest each year and you can contribute the money using payroll deductions up to the total amount paid in Social Security taxes by you and your employer. Unlike a traditional IRA that can lose money these are backed by government bonds and can be tied to I bonds that grow with inflation.

The program is optional and money is yours and if you die early the money is transferred to your heirs.