Social Security insolvency is fixable - Forbes
Not a day goes by that we don’t see some media posts about Social Security going bankrupt. Yes, the Social Security Trust fund is facing an insolvency issue in the coming years; however, it is fixable. One fixable item is our contribution rates. The contribution rates, better known as the FICA tax, were established during the 1983 reforms, but times have changed. In the 1980s, about 90 percent of all wages were subject to Social Security payroll taxes; compared to today, it has dropped to around 82.6 percent. Dan Doonan explores why this is not a crisis of complexity. It’s an easily solvable math problem of benefits and revenues that need to be aligned. Read Mr. Doonan’s article for Forbes here…
As an example of the leading thoughts on reforming Social Security, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC, Inc.) believes Social Security must be preserved and modernized to meet the demands of 21st-century economics. AMAC’s position is that this can be achieved without payroll tax increases via slight program modifications, including cost of living adjustments and payments to high-income beneficiaries. AMAC also supports an increase in the thresholds where benefits are subject to income tax, along with indexing of these thresholds annually to account for inflation. The AMAC position also calls for eliminating the reduction in benefits for those choosing to work before full retirement age, and advocates for improved savings tools for future retirees. AMAC is resolute in its mission that Social Security be preserved for current and successive generations and has gotten the attention of lawmakers in D.C., meeting with many congressional offices and staff over the past decade.
This posting is presented for informational purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. Any opinions or interpretations presented are either those of the original author or, in the case of articles authored by the AMAC Foundation, are the opinions of AMAC Foundation staff, originally trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA) and certified via the AMAC Foundation. Any links included in the article are valid on the posted date; socialsecurityreport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the links’ validity. NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity. To submit a question, visit our website (https://amacfoundation.org/services/) or email us at ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org. Because we are a non-profit organization, there is no charge for these services.