Social Security and the end of Pensions for Current Seniors

Economy
1

Due to globalization and the end of pensions in most corporations over the last 25-30 years, many seniors do not have a pension. For example, IBM, one of the originators of the full pension and benefits package rewarding long service back in the day, eliminated their pension in the 90’s. What sector did not eliminate pensions? Government! The people who seem to have a secure retirement today are former teachers, law enforcement and other US Government employees: that is great for them who already have a livable income to get a further tax break! Fantastic!

What sector kept downsizing and messing with people’s vesting and retirements? The Fortune 100 and larger corporations in the public sector gradually over 30 years, rightly or wrongly, slowly deteriorated retirement benefits to the point of no return or nothing. For many of those people 401ks were also insufficient: either not enough time, companies did not offer 401ks, vesting requirements fell through cracks, companies went out of business, or something odd happened to their 401k/IRAs. (Or perhaps in the 2008 mortgage crisis they needed to early withdraw, causing a taxable event that ate up the entire account? Or perhaps they went through their 401k and savings due to health care costs?) The point is a surprising number of Baby Boomers do not have pensions, 401ks, or employment to supplement lagging Social Security benefits. and can barely survive in today’s high costs.

Whatever the reason, there are reportedly millions of seniors today who depend solely on Social Security Benefits to live. (Age discrimination or health issues have a further impact on many seniors’ ability to get a supplemental job.) Social Security benefits have not kept up with the cost of living in the fiat debt-based financial system’s inflationary spiral. Housing, food, and health care costs have skyrocketed beyond the reach of a monthly Social Security income. I think everyone acknowledges that fact.

The recent idea of No Tax on Social Security is a great start - for people who have income in addition to Social Security, like pensions, 401ks, stocks etc.! However, what about the many seniors who live solely on Social Security and are forced to live below the poverty line with no additional income? That group may not pay any or much tax to begin with, so this new Big Bill policy does nothing to help them. That is the economic sector that desperately needs help next.

In addition, DOGE has uncovered the truth of the infuriating scandal of fraud and abuse in the Social Security system where billions, if not trillions, were stolen or misappropriated to ineligible thieves, compounding the decreasing returns of Social Security Benefits to those seniors who paid the price into the system for entire careers.

For justice to be served and equity achieved in the revitalization of America, something needs to be done for the millions of seniors who are forced to live solely on Social Security in their retirement, Not because they didn’t work hard all their life or they made poor decisions: but because the broken and corrupt Social Security system, globalization, the fiat debt-based economy, and other cultural age biases beyond their control put good honest hard-working middle- and lower-class people in an impossible and unavoidable situation. These are the people, working hard all their lives, who funded all the corruption that DOGE is discovering: everyone just took, took, took, and took more from them, and no one gave them a thing or a break. Now they are in a serious predicament.

Every individual American citizen with a birth certificate has an account tied to their Social Security number that was used over time to finance other unrelated projects or fraudulent actors in the broken system …and reportedly those accounts are in the millions. DOGE would know the facts. Large one-time payments of restitution need to be paid to this demographic group NOW to bring them to par with basic living requirements! In addition, monthly Social Security benefits need to be increased to adjust for compounding inflation costs over their working lifetime so that the benefits are FAIR and livable in today’s FED-induced inflationary economy. Currently the maximum monthly benefit available do not even cover basic reasonable housing expenses, especially since housing has skyrocketed in the last 5-10 years. If you’re a widow or widower, it’s even tougher to survive on half the surviving income. Eliminating property taxes will help but not solve the problem for those who rent and do not own a home due to their insufficient and sole Social Security income.

The new MAGA Baby Savings account is a great idea and will help prevent this problem for babies born today who will retire in 65 years! Prevention is a start.

Restitution needs to be made now to today’s seniors who have spent their adult lives working in a fundamentally broken system, paid a dear price, and are now left without opportunity or basic survivable income. MAGA please fix this!

14 Likes
2

I agree that Social Security must undergo a change that will benefit retirees but is what you are suggesting the answer?

I agree that Social Security taxes should go into an interest bearing account but not into a savings account.

Government pensions must be done away with.

Those who collect government pensions can also collect Social Security.

401ks never made any since to me so I don’t recommend them.

For a baby, what I recommend is opening a one year CD that will allow parent or grandparent to add to it at will. Once it matures and if it still offers at will deposits then allow it to roll over. To me, this is the best poor person’s route to take.

3

Thanks for your thoughts. There are lots of avenues and new financial structures and tools to explore as the financial system changes and innovates under MAGA. Trump’s announcement of the new baby savings account is a good start and would ensure every baby has a basic savings by the time they are 18.

My grandmother gave me $25 US Savings Bonds for every birthday and holiday till I graduated from college. I cashed them all in and used the proceeds to pay cash for my first car. What a great gift that was! But today Savings Bonds won’t accrue/compound to keep up with inflation.(if you can even get them anymore? ) Same for CDs, which no longer deliver a solid return in the debt-based banking system either.

We just had our first granddaughter and we settled on gold and silver eagles. We started her own gold and silver safe in the hopes that in 20 years she can buy more than her first car, maybe even a house, as Sound Money returns some day in the “Golden Age”! Crypto might even be the way to go soon! Exciting changing opportunities will require research and a stable track record.

The key is the savings mechanism has to retain value and compound annually at a rate much greater than inflation to serve as a nest egg later in life. Fiat money won’t meet that criteria. Innovation is rewarded.

4

I would like to correct something please. Now maybe things have changed but my mom was a teacher. She paid into PERS or PARS, I can’t remember if it E or A. She was not able to ever collect from SS. My dad was a telegrapher for a railroad he paid into the fund they set up but for some reason retirement came thru SS. But he paid in. Both did and you and I did and I am collecting now.

5

agree. And we should have an option to get everything back we paid in to SS and Medicare. Give me the money and let me have control over it. All this money that is supposedly going to 150-year-old people, the gig is up. Our politicians were stealing it. It needs to be paid back. And stop all state and federal pensions, let those workers get what we all get, a 401k and they can contribute to. Getting 80 percent of your salary, seriously? People making a 6-figure income getting that much money to retire on? Then they leave office and are multi-millionaires and still getting that money? Please. This needs to stop yesterday.

6

Not only were retirements hit but IBM no longer even has a 401k. :disappointed_relieved:

7

Really? Wow. Unbelievable. I’m glad I sold all my IBM stock years ago.

Why would younger talent and tech leaders even want to work for Big Blue today? Something is seriously askew in the global tech sector (maybe all industry sectors) when highly skilled and educated people are left “on their own” for a balanced competitive benefit package, yet thousands of laid off US government workers are enraged to lose their job because DOGE has discovered serious fraud and abuse with taxpayer money. Honest people who are not implicated in the fraud and qualify for government pensions or severance packages are being treated fairly and generously compared to private sector corporations in this millennia. I wish more impacted workers could be grateful and humbled with necessary change instead of acting ridiculous, entitled, or violent. Their wake up call is still coming.

8

Oh yes SS, all I can say to this is, SS is not for survival at the current amount for many retired people, the COLA is a joke and what is considered “poverty level” is also a joke.
Yes I do know and understand that is all based of what people put into it.

All needs to be redone, scrap current system and develop a new and fair system for all, at current level of economy, if you get less than $5K to say maybe $8K you can’t have a comfy living at all, and this is not “Luxury” but is to be able to say I can do a few things and eat healthy and a car - everyone need to be able to go to the store- (here where I am, I see many have to take the transit minibus because they can’t afford a car) without having to think about it twice.

Additionally, if a person retires then should not have to go back to work to make up for the difference, otherwise is not retirement.

9

Maybe a 401K doesn’t make sense for you but mine is a big part of MY retirement. In fact, the balance in my 401k is just about the same today as it was at the end of 2007 when I retired. And that is after taking Required Minimum Distributions every year except when the government waived RMDs during the COVID fiasco. Social Security and my VA disability have had small raises most years but that 401k just keeps going. And I get two “pension” checks from a former employer. Neither has changed one red cent since 2007. Practically worthless.

Change is needed but lets do it with a lot more thought and a lot less emotion.

What I want to know is why Social Security has no equity investment option when virtually ALL government pension systems do! Even Tampon Tim is a trustee in Minnesota’s pension fund invested in things like Tesla! Teachers, police, firemen, etc. are doing fine. Us not so much. Except for well managed 401k’s, of course.

I don’t know about all the other issues raised. “Life is hard and then you die.” If you want “equal outcomes” go to Russia or China. You’ll still be disappointed but it won’t be those big bad corpirations stabbing you in the back. It will be the government.

10

That’s great Stephen that your 401k has done well for you, as it has for many seniors and already retired people.

My concern is there are millions of people who do not have a 401k, for many reasons. Most small businesses, which represent about 98% of all jobs, cannot offer 401ks, pensions, IRAs, and other expensive benefits. Even if you have an account, not all plans have performed well. Self employed people often don’t have the infrastructure or income to set one up.

I learned from one replier that even IBM (the Big Blue that was the original innovator of the pension plan) doesn’t even offer 401ks, or pensions, anymore. Shocking. I know that some of my former clients decades ago eliminated retirement benefits grandfathering in older workers, but not younger workers who have nothing supplemental. I’m told that many companies nowadays, no longer offer pensions or 401ks or contribute to any benefit plan period. Not to mention the many seniors who were left high and dry by globalization and constant outsourcing or downsizing over the last 40 years.

Another perspective: My father was a professor and administrator of a State University in Ohio. STRS, the independent fund for Ohio teachers was extremely well managed. His retirement was far more with STRS than it would have been if he had been on Social Security. He was not. Perhaps everyone needs their own STRS?

The original thread was about the insufficiency, and now apparently massive corruption, of the Social Security System. If a large percentage of the US working population do not work in jobs with pensions, 401ks, etc, and then Social Security and Medicare ranges continue to be “unlivable” against inflation and cost of living, there is a massive number of aging people who could be in trouble later in life. Millions today already are. Be grateful if that’s not you.

It’s too late for Baby Boomers and others within sight of their 60s, but perhaps the Trump Administration and DOGE can restructure the Social Security system to perform and provide a liveable enhanced benefit per its original intent. Maybe your equity investment suggestion is the answer.

Social Security is not an entitlement program meant to provide equal benefits to all. People and employers pay into it at various levels dependent on variables like income, job, merit, education, etc. But the current system is a mess and needs to be fixed if we are going to Make America Great Again and restore the high quality American dream.