General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If You Are A Baby Boomer - the real reason YOU SHOULD BE FURIOUS over CPI cuts: [View all]customerserviceguy
(25,406 posts)What differs is the policies they support to deal with them. Or, you always have the choice that you make, which is to ignore the facts entirely, because they don't fit in with your preconceived notions that Social Security is this horn of plenty that will never run out of goodies.
Yes, if we had a rip-roaring economy where people were able to get good jobs at union wages, we wouldn't be in such a tough shape, FICA inflows would exceed outflows again, but we're not going back there any time soon. With the ever-larger waves of baby boom retirees hitting up the Social Security system for their checks, I don't see when we'll ever get to that place again. The 2-3 trillion in the trust fund is going to disappear, inflation or not.
All the money the Fed has pumped into the economy is eventually going to catch up with us if we ever do have any real semblance of a recovery, and we'll be in stagflation at best. All that quantitative easing is just a way to export pain from the present into the future. I'm sorry you can't see that right now, but it will be here soon.