Social Security - Help me understand better

The amount that you pay into it goes directly to the current beneficiaries (i.e., retirees). This works well as long as you have stable age demographics, which we do not. Because of an aging of the population, the share of retirees is growing relative to the share of people paying into it, making the program unsustainable under current tax rates ($ inflows) and benefits ($ outflows).

I'm Gen X and am not counting on a single penny from SS. I've planned and budgeted accordingly. I hate to think of it as a sunk cost, but I've come to look at it that way.

The system is designed to never pay out more than you put in for normal w2 type working people. Most don’t live too many years past their retirement age for benefits. In the case of my father he passed away in his 50’s and my mother can only collect a portion of his benefit so it will never pay out what he put in. I also believe there shouldn’t be a penalty on income earned while collecting benefits after all they are YOURS

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I'm Gen X and am not counting on a single penny from SS.

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Me too and me neither.

My retirement plan is just to pass away

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For those who are very educated in this. how do you get more SS payout than you put in? Im not trying to do it, trying to understand why its so messed up without a simple "the govt controls it thats why".

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Your question makes logical sense. I believe you are missing one component, and most people miss it. People do not understand the role the Federal Reserve plays in our economy.

Without the Federal Reserve we would define what the federal government is running as a Ponzi scheme where the Ponzi scheme relies on larger income over expenditures into system over time. Ponzis run into a brick wall when the revenues become deficits and not surpluses.

The federal government does not have this issue. They have the Federal Reserve to always provide a consistent and reliable flow of money to at least meet government spending including SS and increases in SS. It's actualized on the bond market via primary dealers working on behalf of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve via these primary dealers buy at the appropriate rate to cover federal government overspending and accomplish stated interest rate goals against the rest of the bond market (which includes everyone in the world minus the Federal Reserve). This is also known colloquially as money printing.

That's how you get more SS payout than you put in.

Now when you say "put in" that means from the production side.

Congress will always appropriate more money than tax revenue (run a deficit) because the FR will always bail them out and they assume the GPD (production) will always increase at 2% rate overtime. Part of GDP number is government expenditures...

When social security was created, the retirement age was equal to the average adult life expectancy. Thus, those who survived past it were a relatively small percentage of the population. There were 12 working individuals for every one beneficiary.

Today, the average adult life expectancy is 15-20 years BEYOND retirement age, and the ratio of workers to beneficiaries is closer to 3 workers for every 2 beneficiaries. The system is unsustainable and collapsing in on itself.

The imbeciles here who don't understand, want to be deliberately ignorant.

SS taxes are separate from income taxes, everyone pays everyone is eligible for payments.

Get more by putting off retirement till way past 100% eligibility date. Which is presently 70.

I'm on the cusp of drawing my 100% amount at 66 yr and 9 months.

Live long after the max is reached after 70 you will withdraw more than you put in.

I was around when SS changed the rules under Pres Reagan and speaker Tip O'Neal. It hurt to pay more in taxes and wait longer to retire.

SS was never to be the only retirement plan for citizens. It was to be a supplemental income to keep people out of poverty.

Look it up, you lazy morons.

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Reading the rules, Im trying to understand why the program can't be better or terminated/transferred into other things now that roth and 401k programs are so mature without effecting certain people.

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It should be. But unfortunately it’s too far gone to even touch. You lose grandma and grandpa as a voter block you’re screwed.

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My opinion.. leave my investment alone politicians and fix what you broke….

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It's not broken.

It's working perfectly fine. Politicians are just aggravated they have to allocate such a large part of the budget to SS every year.

But the costs of working perfectly fine is inflation and less individual spending power.

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Instead of allowing these retirement systems be exempt from social security withholdings, they should give the workers the option to still pay into social security and retirement so they can collect both when they retire.

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I doubt that employers are going to do this. I pay 7% and my employer matches me 2:1, but I'm exempt from Social Security. I doubt that they would continue to match at 2:1 if they were also having to match in SS. Besides, I trust the private sector to manage my money much better than the government.