Social Security trust fund to be depleted sooner than expected

[MajorRewrite]

This year Social Security will run an estimated cash flow deficit of $250 billion. The “Social Security trust fund” is a myth, so the cash flow deficit is paid out of the general fund (and by increasing the national debt).

The Cato Institute recently posted an article about ways other nations have changed their retirement programs to deal with such issues:

How Fiscal and Economic Crises Prompted Retirement Reforms Abroad—and What They Reveal for US Social Security

Germany slowed benefit growth, raised retirement ages, and introduced an automatic stabilizer in its Statutory Pension Insurance program (structurally similar to Social Security) that reduces benefit growth as demographics worsen.

New Zealand reduced old-age spending from 8 percent of GDP in the early 1980s to 5 percent by the late 1990s. Reforms included reducing benefit levels in its flat-benefit program and gradually raising the retirement age.

Canada’s system includes a similar feature: if the CPP faces long-term shortfalls and politicians fail to agree on a solution, an automatic mechanism will slow benefit growth and increase payroll taxes.

Sweden added a second stabilizer in its retirement system in 2022, which links the eligibility ages of all old-age programs to life expectancy increases, ensuring the system automatically adjusts to demographic pressures.

In the US, politicians will most likely ignore the problem and thereby create a bigger problem for future generations. This is also how US politicians deal with budget deficits and the national debt.

 

[Philthy_Phil]

Social Security retirement trust fund may be depleted in less than a decade, new trustees' report finds​

One of the biggest news items of the week failed to make the Politics Board. Hardly got much attention anywhere.

It’s a pretty big deal for people who live in the US. The next president is going to be forced to deal with this. What actions should be taken?

1. Raise the income level that is subject to SS taxes
2. Raise the retirement age for people in the workforce who are not super close to retirement already
3. Cut benefits for existing retirees
4. Reduce benefits for future retirees
5. Revise the COLA formula
6. Raise taxes on SS income
7. Repeal any tax cuts for SS income that might be in the yet to be passed reconciliation bill
8. Recruit high earner immigrants of working age to live and pay SS taxes in the US
9. Offer inheritance tax breaks to seniors who sign up for assisted suicide
10. Some combination of the above

Other?

Ok Mr./Mrs. President, you’re on the clock.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/soc...-releases-new-trust-fund-depletion-dates.html

I heard bringing in immigrants would help.

Oh wait, you guys hate them.

 

[Rebel5soul]

Social Security is, and always was, a Ponzi scheme.

 

[ll74]

Jfc.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Social Security is, and always was, a Ponzi scheme.

Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme but rather an insurance program with a solvable funding issue.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

I heard bringing in immigrants would help.

Oh wait, you guys hate them.

Illegal aliens pay about $27 billion annually. Social Security pays out about $1.7 trillion annually. Sending a few million illegals home each year is a rounding error.

 

[dmallord]

Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme but rather an insurance program with a solvable funding issue.

Certainly is. I'd propose taking a few of those billion-dollar flying battleships Trump is personally designing and redirecting those funds to boost Social Security's solvency. It doesn't take a couple of billion-dollar battleships to blow up an alleged unarmed stiletto speedboat in the ocean.

 

[Rebel5soul]

Certainly is. I'd propose taking a few of those billion-dollar flying battleships Trump is personally designing and redirecting those funds to boost Social Security's solvency. It doesn't take a couple of billion-dollar battleships to blow up an alleged unarmed stiletto speedboat in the ocean.

Trump isn't going to do a damn thing. He's going to let congress stew in the cesspool they created. They fucked it up, they can damn well fix it.

 

[Lazaran]

Certainly is. I'd propose taking a few of those billion-dollar flying battleships Trump is personally designing and redirecting those funds to boost Social Security's solvency. It doesn't take a couple of billion-dollar battleships to blow up an alleged unarmed stiletto speedboat in the ocean.

It gonna take a lot more than the price of those battleships.

Social Security was looted and underfunded for going on FIFTY YEARS at the behest of / to the benefit of the oligarchs.

It’s going to take a corrective measure in the opposite direction EQUAL to that FIFTY YEARS of looting and underfunding to address the solvency issue.

Tax (eat?) the rich!!!

We. Told. Them. So.

 

[Rightguide]

Social Security retirement trust fund may be depleted in less than a decade, new trustees' report finds​

One of the biggest news items of the week failed to make the Politics Board. Hardly got much attention anywhere.

It’s a pretty big deal for people who live in the US. The next president is going to be forced to deal with this. What actions should be taken?

1. Raise the income level that is subject to SS taxes
2. Raise the retirement age for people in the workforce who are not super close to retirement already
3. Cut benefits for existing retirees
4. Reduce benefits for future retirees
5. Revise the COLA formula
6. Raise taxes on SS income
7. Repeal any tax cuts for SS income that might be in the yet to be passed reconciliation bill
8. Recruit high earner immigrants of working age to live and pay SS taxes in the US
9. Offer inheritance tax breaks to seniors who sign up for assisted suicide
10. Some combination of the above

Other?

Ok Mr./Mrs. President, you’re on the clock.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/soc...-releases-new-trust-fund-depletion-dates.html

No doubt, now that half the world is on it.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Trump isn't going to do a damn thing. He's going to let congress stew in the cesspool they created. They fucked it up, they can damn well fix it.

Nobody “fucked it up”. Social Security is the same as it ever was, but it needs to be adjusted to account for changed demographics (longer lifespans and lower birth rates).

 

[MajorRewrite]

The UK fixed a similar funding problem for their retirement plan by admitting that it was actually always a poverty reduction program for elderly people and restructured it appropriately.

Social Security Pays Excessive Benefits to the Highest-Income Earners: A UK Comparison

A better option would return Social Security to its stated goals of old-age poverty protection by shifting from an earnings-related benefit to a flat benefit that is predictable, transparent, and more effective at providing insurance for struggling seniors. The United Kingdom used to feature an earnings-related benefit in the past but connected the dots that this was an ineffective and excessively costly way to provide seniors with poverty protection in old age. So, in 2014, the UK adopted the new state pension, shifting to a flat benefit model that raised benefits for seniors with low lifetime earnings and reduced benefits for those at the upper end.

I’d support switching to a flat Social Security payment that’s the same for everyone. It’s a way to reduce overall spending without hurting the lowest wealth retirees, and it avoids higher taxes on working people to pay for the current bloated payment structure.

 

[Wilson23]

Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme but rather an insurance program with a solvable funding issue.

All we need to do is make the payroll tax progressive.