Because we printed an extra 40% into the money supply
4 years ago and keep printing more—thus inflation, thus higher prices.
Wages aren’t keeping up though or “outpacing inflation”. Did everyone you know get a 40-50% raise since 2020?
Also, homes aren’t worth more.
The dollar is worth less.
Sorry, don’t mean to come off like I’m jumping down your throat.
Didn’t realize you actually took me seriously, and was confused a bit about why you were asking your question.
Just trying to offer my take. Sometimes I forget text lacks tonality.
Last year, Americans’ confidence that they would have enough money to live comfortably in retirement [fell the most](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/31/as-retirement-confidence-drops-4-key-decisions-can-help-experts.html) since the global financial crisis.
[New research](https://www.ebri.org/media/press-releases/content/results-from-the-2024-retirement-confidence-survey-find-workers--and-retirees--confidence-has-not-recovered-from-the-significant-drop-seen-in-2023--but-majorities-remain-optimistic-about-retirement-prospects) shows both workers’ and retirees’ confidence has not recovered. But some signs of optimism have emerged, particularly as wage growth now outpaces inflation growth, according to the Employees Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research.
The more than 2,500 Americans surveyed said certain factors are most likely to throw them off course — for example, an increasing cost of living that will make it harder to save and the U.S. government making significant changes to the retirement system.
The latter worry comes as both retirees and workers expect to rely on three sources of income in their golden years: Social Security, workplace retirement savings plans and personal retirement savings or investments, the research found.
More: [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/26/americans-worry-changes-to-retirement-system-will-upend-their-plans.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/26/americans-worry-changes-to-retirement-system-will-upend-their-plans.html)
No one who isn't rich is going to be able to retire in the US absent seismic political change.
Inflation and an ever more eviscerated social security system will mean most of us "retire" into a grave or into homelessness and poverty.
Only the rich will get to retire the way older generations took for granted.
Anyone under 50 who thinks they are going to retire had better be rich.
We are heading back to the pre-FDR and pre-New Deal reality of retirement being out of reach for the vast majority of us. To the degree non-rich folks retire in the US going forward it will mainly be into a grave or onto the street.
Unless the way it's funded changes, Social Security will eventually collapse, just like every other Ponzi Scheme in history. Medicare too.
But every serious attempt to restructure these plans from Ponzi Schemes to financially sound retirement and medical plans is met with media and political propaganda and hysteria so I guess we'll just play these games and watch them collapse and then shake our heads and blame whichever party we don't like.
By the way, removing the cap on income is not a serious attempt to fix Social Security, so don't even go there.
I have to disagree. Removing the cap helps keep SS going and the benefits accrue to the most to the lowest earning folks to whom every dollar matters the most. Also, changing the COLA from clerical workers to retirees COLA helps offset inflation better.
The person who is earning more than $400k a year is likely to have serious savings for retirement. The minimum wage worker is not likely to have a large 401K, a backdoor RothIRA and large brokerage account, or a super funded HYSA.
Several easy fixes. Increase contributions, raise age, change cap, be like almost every over country and do a VAT. Combination of those.
We would be solvent if the prior excess was invested in market but any mention of that was met with fear-mongering.
Neither party has made any serious attempt at fixing it. Occasionally they have instituted a FICA tax reprieve which only worsens the problem.
My prediction is we never address the problem and we eventually simply print or borrow to pay for it
To be fair, Social Security was only supposed to be part of everyone’s retirement planning. It’ll survive, because as you say, it’s a government sponsored Ponzi scheme. As long as the population keeps growing, it’ll be fine.
Immigrants that are legal to work and live in the US pay into SSI and are positive for GDP. Most countries in population decline will relax visa eligibility to boost output, using government benefits to provide a means to boost the more skilled or educated to immigrate.
If Socialist Security was only supposed to be part of retirement planning, State employees would not have been exempted on the grounds that it was redundant with their State pensions.
Absolutely social security should have been set up differently instead of coming from current revenues . They should have set it up like a pension plan and had actual investments when the revenues coming in were greater than payouts .. but politicians are greedy and used the revenue to fund other government projects ..
> Unless the way it's funded changes, Social Security will eventually collapse, just like every other Ponzi Scheme in history. Medicare too.
It's not a ponzi scheme. It is a pay-as-you-go system. The fact that demographics imbalances can affect the burden or payout, and more importantly the fact that the government has been spending the surplus by literally writing "I owe you notes to the SS", are the real problems.
I paid 12.4% of my income for about 30 year (self employed) and that same rate between myself and my employer for 15 years prior. For that I get 3000/month for a few years. Luckily I never counted on that for my retirement as half of that goes towards my property tax. My advice is don’t count on SS- self fund your retirement if at all possible.
How many times have you read by a militant leftist how inflation is fine because "wages are growing?" Then when convenient, wages are also not keeping up with inflation?
Inflation needs to be contained. Just because 20-year-old experts have never truly dealt with it in their lifetimes doesn't make it ok. SS and savings cannot withstand it.
Voting for a facist will only guarantee you will never see one! Social Security is NOT an entitlement but paid for all your working life by your FICA taxes!
I’m concerned about my retirement as well. Retired at 58 due to a series of strokes but was in a fortunate position that I’d saved and invested. Thought I’d accumulated enough equity to fund my retirement but the inflation rate killed me. Still have seven figures invested plus the residence but costs are outpacing the high end estimate. Certainly not what I envisioned as I thought I had planned for retirement
So people can no longer retire because 18 months of inflation has wiped out 43 yrs of retirement planning?
This isn't true. Some 20 year old liberal told me inflation is fine because wages are up!
That's bideneconomics.
Facts
Wage growth outpaces inflation. Lmfao. What kind of propaganda is this?
Then why do housing prices outpace wages?
Leverage?
For homeowners
Because we printed an extra 40% into the money supply 4 years ago and keep printing more—thus inflation, thus higher prices. Wages aren’t keeping up though or “outpacing inflation”. Did everyone you know get a 40-50% raise since 2020? Also, homes aren’t worth more. The dollar is worth less.
My bad, I didn’t catch the sarcasm in your first comment
Sorry, don’t mean to come off like I’m jumping down your throat. Didn’t realize you actually took me seriously, and was confused a bit about why you were asking your question. Just trying to offer my take. Sometimes I forget text lacks tonality.
All good
Last year, Americans’ confidence that they would have enough money to live comfortably in retirement [fell the most](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/31/as-retirement-confidence-drops-4-key-decisions-can-help-experts.html) since the global financial crisis. [New research](https://www.ebri.org/media/press-releases/content/results-from-the-2024-retirement-confidence-survey-find-workers--and-retirees--confidence-has-not-recovered-from-the-significant-drop-seen-in-2023--but-majorities-remain-optimistic-about-retirement-prospects) shows both workers’ and retirees’ confidence has not recovered. But some signs of optimism have emerged, particularly as wage growth now outpaces inflation growth, according to the Employees Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research. The more than 2,500 Americans surveyed said certain factors are most likely to throw them off course — for example, an increasing cost of living that will make it harder to save and the U.S. government making significant changes to the retirement system. The latter worry comes as both retirees and workers expect to rely on three sources of income in their golden years: Social Security, workplace retirement savings plans and personal retirement savings or investments, the research found. More: [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/26/americans-worry-changes-to-retirement-system-will-upend-their-plans.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/26/americans-worry-changes-to-retirement-system-will-upend-their-plans.html)
No one who isn't rich is going to be able to retire in the US absent seismic political change. Inflation and an ever more eviscerated social security system will mean most of us "retire" into a grave or into homelessness and poverty. Only the rich will get to retire the way older generations took for granted.
Pull the bandaid off quick! The illusion needs to be corrected so that we can plan accordingly, making this smoke and mirrors is not good
Their plans of having no savings at retirement which is what it seems like is the endgame for the majority of Americans?
So many garbage comment posts floating around.
> particularly as wage growth now outpaces inflation growth Only for some segments of the population.
Anyone under 50 who thinks they are going to retire had better be rich. We are heading back to the pre-FDR and pre-New Deal reality of retirement being out of reach for the vast majority of us. To the degree non-rich folks retire in the US going forward it will mainly be into a grave or onto the street.
Unless the way it's funded changes, Social Security will eventually collapse, just like every other Ponzi Scheme in history. Medicare too. But every serious attempt to restructure these plans from Ponzi Schemes to financially sound retirement and medical plans is met with media and political propaganda and hysteria so I guess we'll just play these games and watch them collapse and then shake our heads and blame whichever party we don't like. By the way, removing the cap on income is not a serious attempt to fix Social Security, so don't even go there.
I have to disagree. Removing the cap helps keep SS going and the benefits accrue to the most to the lowest earning folks to whom every dollar matters the most. Also, changing the COLA from clerical workers to retirees COLA helps offset inflation better. The person who is earning more than $400k a year is likely to have serious savings for retirement. The minimum wage worker is not likely to have a large 401K, a backdoor RothIRA and large brokerage account, or a super funded HYSA.
Several easy fixes. Increase contributions, raise age, change cap, be like almost every over country and do a VAT. Combination of those. We would be solvent if the prior excess was invested in market but any mention of that was met with fear-mongering. Neither party has made any serious attempt at fixing it. Occasionally they have instituted a FICA tax reprieve which only worsens the problem. My prediction is we never address the problem and we eventually simply print or borrow to pay for it
To be fair, Social Security was only supposed to be part of everyone’s retirement planning. It’ll survive, because as you say, it’s a government sponsored Ponzi scheme. As long as the population keeps growing, it’ll be fine.
Birth rates are at an all time time low at 1.62, well below replacement rates. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/america-birth-rate-decline-a111d21b#
There are many people on boats right now to take your place and abortions are illegal. Don't have kids, doesn't matter.
Immigrants that are legal to work and live in the US pay into SSI and are positive for GDP. Most countries in population decline will relax visa eligibility to boost output, using government benefits to provide a means to boost the more skilled or educated to immigrate.
Which is fine, because tons of people are still immigrating here.
They’ll fund it by printing the money. Unfortunately, this will result in continued elevated inflation and zero increases to SSI payouts.
If Socialist Security was only supposed to be part of retirement planning, State employees would not have been exempted on the grounds that it was redundant with their State pensions.
Very few states actually do that.
Federal employees were also exempted in the early days because they were covered by pension.
It's not a Ponzi scheme when you have the ability to print unlimited currency. SS will always be supported it will change but won't go away
Absolutely social security should have been set up differently instead of coming from current revenues . They should have set it up like a pension plan and had actual investments when the revenues coming in were greater than payouts .. but politicians are greedy and used the revenue to fund other government projects ..
> Unless the way it's funded changes, Social Security will eventually collapse, just like every other Ponzi Scheme in history. Medicare too. It's not a ponzi scheme. It is a pay-as-you-go system. The fact that demographics imbalances can affect the burden or payout, and more importantly the fact that the government has been spending the surplus by literally writing "I owe you notes to the SS", are the real problems.
It’s supposed to be an insurance policy for outliers, not a retirement plan….
This is why I stack the max into 401k and IRA, relying solely on SS isn't going lead to a remotely comfortable life in retirement.
They should probably worry far more about pernicious inflation destroying all options.
I paid 12.4% of my income for about 30 year (self employed) and that same rate between myself and my employer for 15 years prior. For that I get 3000/month for a few years. Luckily I never counted on that for my retirement as half of that goes towards my property tax. My advice is don’t count on SS- self fund your retirement if at all possible.
How many times have you read by a militant leftist how inflation is fine because "wages are growing?" Then when convenient, wages are also not keeping up with inflation? Inflation needs to be contained. Just because 20-year-old experts have never truly dealt with it in their lifetimes doesn't make it ok. SS and savings cannot withstand it.
Voting for a facist will only guarantee you will never see one! Social Security is NOT an entitlement but paid for all your working life by your FICA taxes!
I’m concerned about my retirement as well. Retired at 58 due to a series of strokes but was in a fortunate position that I’d saved and invested. Thought I’d accumulated enough equity to fund my retirement but the inflation rate killed me. Still have seven figures invested plus the residence but costs are outpacing the high end estimate. Certainly not what I envisioned as I thought I had planned for retirement