Elementary Social Security. [View all]

[kentuck]

If we were to maintain a workforce of 100 million workers who paid $20 per week in FICA taxes (contributions) out of each paycheck, that would mean $2 billion dollars per week would go into the Social Security Trust Fund. (I am only using this as an example because the numbers are quite a bit higher)

So, if we were paying $2 billion per week, that would equal $104 billion dollars per year into the Social Security Trust Fund. That is a lot of money. It is not going to go broke so long as the workers continue to pay into it. The worst scenario would be that the benefits would have to be cut if it ran into a shortfall. Or it would need to be changed in some small way to meet its needs.

The point being that Social Security is not going broke and cannot go broke so long as workers pay into it. The only way it could go broke is if we stop paying those taxes and say that we are going to pay for it out of the "general fund". The "general fund" is always at the discretion of the politicians in power. They can spend it on whatever they desire. This is the danger in the "payroll tax cut".

Bottom line, Social Security is one of the greatest programs ever created and gives workers and citizens an independence from the capitalists and the conservatives in government that despise the program. We should protect it at all costs.


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