Trump may let workers take Social Security benefits early in exchange for reduced payments later

[progree]

10. Camel's nose under the tent. Yeah, at first it will just be $5,000. Hoover Inst and AEI, hmm.

Last edited Tue May 12, 2020, 01:47 AM - Edit history (2)

then pressure will mount in the future to up it to $10,000. Then $25,000, and so on and so on. Pretty soon you'll be able to borrow half or more of it away for any government-approved "good" purpose. And that list of good purposes will expand and expand.

I like Social Security the way it is -- it's for old age retirement and disability, and people can't borrow it away. Human nature being what it is, too many people would be borrowing too much from it and leaving themselves way short in old age or if disabled.

And the people who will be most hurt by this will disproportionately be the ones who need their Social Security income the most.

If we want a piggy bank that people can borrow from at any age, fine, but that should be a completely separate program.

Another great feature of Social Security the way it is, is the very low administration cost (2% IIRC). But if we start allowing borrowing, and then we have hardship cases, and then we get into HARP-style loan modifications and all the paperwork involved in that, no thanks.
Social Security should be Social Security, a social INSURANCE program. Not a fucking mortgage company.

The plan was developed by Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute and Joshua Rauh of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

More evidence that it is a lousy idea. And by the way, anybody who thinks these organizations will be content with allowing just $5,000 of borrowing from S.S. is unarguably a complete fool.

Yes, I'm aware that people can opt to retire at 62 (or 63, or 64 etc.) in exchange for reduced lifetime monthly benefit amounts. But at least it's saved for old age, just 4 or 5 years earlier. And at least its a stream of monthly income, not what probably will evolve into an irresistibly tempting large lump sum. Whatever. That this option exists shouldn't be used as an excuse to justify more borrowing from the future (or just plain taking from the future). This illustrates how any opening can be used to justify a further opening.