I definitely Agree, low it to 60. And raise SS payments
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yes
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I AGREE FULLY that we should make the retirement age 60yo.
BTW it is a BLATENT LIE that it is an unfunded liability!
You want to know the TRUTH? OK…
In the 1930s, FDR decided to pass this garbage, as part of “the new deal”! NOBODY bothered to think about this AT ALL, and so they passed it at a VERY VERY VERY LOW RATE! They have raised the rate a LOT over the years.
It is NOW high enough to potentially pay for itself, but there is ONE problem!
They ran it like a ponzi scheme. Undeserving people get a lot of money for NOTHING, and the earlier retirees were promised more than they could ever get, so the government stole from workers!
Because of this they have been raising the rate charged to workers, FOR THEIR OWN RETIREMENT, and raising the retirement age! This means the government gets MORE money and is LESS LIKELY to have to pay it back! So workers lose at BOTH ENDS!
All of that money democrats love to send overseas, to the ukraine, etc…, is partially money that should go to RETIREES!!!
The idea was SUPPOSED to be that workers would be charged social security, and that money would go into the US to fund projects and money gotten through them would be invested into the fund to fund the retirements that the people would later have. BTW, I checked! They are CURRENTLY promising to pay me approximately 38% of my average yearly salary for retirement. That isn’t all that much, especially given my likely short lifespan, and the fact that I have made as much as almost DOUBLE the average amount.
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Consider this also:
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How much of SS is used for things other than SS?
There are some protections against this but does anyone know if all of SS taxes are put into SS and used only for SS? Or are funds diverted and or used elsewhere?
If they are it would help to put a stop to that behavior.
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Thank all of you for the great discussion points! I love all the feed back! I have heard all my life that social security would run out of money, well it hasn’t happened yet. Sometimes I think it’s just a scare tactic and I agree that it feels more like a Ponzi scheme. I have worked since I was 15 years old and I think after working and paying in to the “system” for 45 years you should be able to take your money with out penalty’s and have healthcare, whatever that may be, Medicare, Medicaid , market place, etc .
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Only in America could there be a population of adults who believe that Government (who’s only source of income is from your income) and employers (who’s only source of income is from your work) should be responsible to pay for their retirement. This entire discussion is wrongheaded.
I tend to use God’s Word as a guide for all things, even retirement. So, where does it say that man should work until he wants to stop and then go enjoy himself, and your fellow taxpayers and employer should pay for it.
I fully agree with this. It was something I was going to propose. We the people are tired and we should have a well deserved rest when we reach 60.
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For one, the money they take from my pay check for the 45 years that I work, that the government and my employer said this is for “retirement “ but you can only have it when you have 1 foot in the grave basically.
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Yes, however, your employer matched what you contributed and in some cases added more.
If we were discussing eliminating Social Security and allowing you and your employer to plan your retirement, then I would be all in. But just quitting early to go play….
We all have opinions, yes that’s what retirement is. To play how I see fit, whatever that might be, playing and helping with grandkids, helping your elderly family members, volunteering somewhere to make a positive impact, etc…
Social Security was designed to be a supplement, not be the main event. It’s like the side dish to your retirement dinner—helpful, but not meant to be the whole meal. The idea was to provide a basic level of income to ensure that retirees don’t have to resort to eating cat food… unless they really like cat food, I guess. Lowering the age pushes the reserve funds to the limit sooner than later.
As someone that is in my early 60’s and not yet of age to collect SS, I knew what it was from the beginning as I was taught by my parents to save. I still work and choose to because I have not reached my personal retirement goal. And before someone challenges working in an office vs trades. I am a first responder.
But I’m going to spin this out in a differently. If you want to retire at 60, retire! Prepare yourself for the goal that you set. If we lower that age it’s not going to be there for those just starting to pay into the ponzi system. And the biggest fear I have is you chose an arbitrary age of 60 and in 5 years someone else wants 55. Ask the European nations retirement systems are working out.
There are a few problems I have with your premise.
- Social Security (SSI) was never intended to a retirement plan. It is supplemental money to cover expenses.
- Most of the data I’ve seen indicates people are not saving early enough, or at all, for their retirement. Many people expect the government to take care of them in retirement. I doubt that the average person has any idea how much money they will need for 20 or 30 years of retirement.
- The pre-tax dollars taken out of one’s paycheck for retirement come with stiff penalties for early withdrawal. Also there are requirements to withdraw a percentage of money each year after age 72.
There should an “economics for retirement” course in high school or free online courses. Many tax laws will need to be changed.
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Barry, unfortunately, everything you posted is already known. In all politeness, I must kindly state that I completed reading your entire post and am left with only the memories of others who quoted exactly the same thing. It would have been quicker if I had a canned recording of it and simply played it to myself every time someone raised their hand with the same message.
I am not sure what you expected to convey to me since it is a boilerplate argument for not doing anything about Social Security retirement age. You could have simply said that you disagree with the policy suggestion and saved yourself a lot of work. I think it would be harder to identify people that are NOT aware of your points, than to find people who are – it is simply that common. If you thought that you were giving others an education on financial responsibility, then the expressed intention is probably insulting to everyone here, including yourself, don’t you think?
If you wanted to take a fresh stab at countering the policy suggestion, you could have explained why we could not afford it because there are no other sources of government waste that could be tapped into, or that we are on the verge of some new medical technologies that double the average lifespan, making us highly productive at 60 once again. But simply plopping down that common overused short speech on why Social Security age cannot be moved, or why people shouldn’t rely on it as much as they might wish, is really adding nothing to the discussion, I think; and your message comes across a bit preachy-like, while under-erestimating others, over-estimating yourself, or some combination thereof. I am not sure if you were aware that the points you made were already common (and monotonous-sounding) knowledge; however, thanks for the short trip down memory lane (again). Your objection to changing the retirement age is certainly noted; and we agree to disagree, for reasons previously provided.
And, although you might THINK that Social Security is operating in the way that you specified, I must beg to differ with you – and that there are OTHER reasons as to why SS is really insolvent. Without going into defense of this tidbit below, I will include it as a healthy reminder that, what people THINK they know about government programs and intentions, could actually be a complete fantasy…
Maybe we need to start looking for those wasted government resources to fix the REAL problem, sooner rather than later, and perhaps move the age to 60 while we are doing it. Seems prudent at this point.
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Well, seeing all the governments waste and ABUSE of our tax dollars 
Social security is NOT going broke! It’s just going to EVERYONE but the American people! We are literally funding our own destruction … we have all been deceived … like it or not…
Regina, is this the point where we hear the old: “Told ya so.” adage? At the rate Elon and the techno-wiz DOGE crew is going, we may soon be able to retire at 38. 
/sarc
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I appreciate that you have some ideas to offer. As a business owner myself, I will have to do some calculations and consider how those suggestions would affect the profitability of the company, how much I would have to increase my prices to stay profitable and consider the advantages/disadvantages of reducing hours and part-time employment. That money has to come from somewhere for an employer or government to increase those contributions.
Or maybe we can simply redirect all of the stolen trillions from USAID, Social Security, Medicare, Medcaid, the Pentagon, and the other treasonous agencies and put the money back where it was in the first place, before they ripped off the American People…maybe that one, huh? /sarc
Image Disclaimer: Mainstream Media calls it “Waste”. DOGE calls it “Theft, Kickbacks, Fraud & Money-Laundering”.
Fun Trivia Note: You don’t fix the a leaky pail by adding 10% more water to the pail. You fix the pail by hanging it.
Not sure why there are so many people stuck on the idea of fixing the Social Security shortfall by either pushing out the retirement age or coming up with more tax money from the American People. I read through these posts and it seems almost nobody is addressing the problem head on – by stopping the fraud and government waste instead, which is the VERY SOURCE of the problem. Why is that? Is it because it is too hard to contemplate that one’s own government could be criminally responsible from stealing from the American People? Ask yourself why so few people want to bring up the REAL problem with Social Security. Elon doesn’t have a problem telling the world.
Bottom line - we won’t be fixing anything here, as long as we are dancing around the REAL problem. Raising taxes, shifting tax brackets, increasing payments, and raising retirement age is not addressing the gigantic elephant in the room – Decades of secret congressional money-laundering, kickbacks, fraud, and theft from the govt accounts of the American Taxpayers.
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Just one more example of showing the VERY SOURCE of the problem, which needs addressing.
We can start by juggling age requirements around, or playing with income contributions, or some other financial gimmic, for when one starts receiving Social Security, OR
We can start addressing Social Security solvency by starting to fix the government fraud or waste already associated with it…for example…
Here are the latest Social Security recipients pulled by Musk and the DOGE team, grouped by age brackets…
- Age 0-9: 38,825,456
- Age 10-19: 44,326,480
- Age 20-29: 47,995,478
- Age 30-39: 52,106,915
- Age 40-49: 47,626,581
- Age 50-59: 45,740,805
- Age 60-69: 46,381,281
- Age 70-79: 33,404,412
- Age 80-89: 15,165,127
- Age 90-99: 6,054,154
- Age 100-109: 4,734,407
- Age 110-119: 3,627,007
- Age 120-129: 3,472,849
- Age 130-139: 3,936,311
- Age 140-149: 3,542,044
- Age 150-159: 1,345,083
- Age 160-169: 121,807
- Age 170-179: 6,087
- Age 180-189: 695
- Age 190-199: 448
- Age 200-209: 879
- Age 210-219: 866
- Age 220-229: 1,039
- Age 240-249: 1
- Age 360-369: 1
This is a raging waterfall of money pouring out every month. Can it be any more obvious about what we should immediately start doing in order to make 60 a realistic retirement age for LIVING Americans? Imagine how many DECADES these illicit payments went on. It is sickening. And this is just a sliver of the overal SS waste and fraud…just a single example. 
And yet another example, as recent as today, on where we should be focusing our efforts to fix Social Security so that we can lower the retirement age…
We need focus on the corruption within the agency, and remove all of the roadblocks that are intentionally being thrown up to hide the corruption. Prime example exists in the excerpt below…
"Acting Commissioner Michelle King, who was appointed last month, has been forced out after attempting to stonewall an investigation into massive fraud within the agency—an investigation spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
King’s abrupt departure comes after Musk’s team requested access to critical data that could expose widespread abuse and fraudulent claims draining the Social Security fund."
Folks, we really need to start focusing on the RIGHT THINGS if we are to make Social Security work for us (including lowering the age to 60). We should not be worried about how to find extra nickles and dimes to drop in the SSA black hole. We need to fix the real problems with it.
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