Is the US running out of Social Security?

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And how does it even work?

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There’s no denying that Americans rely heavily on Social Security benefits. Estimates from the Social Security Administration found that 97% of adults over the age of 60 are either collecting or will start collecting Social Security. As of February 2023, about one in every five residents in the US collected benefits from these funds. For such a widely used program, it’s a bit surprising that people in the US know so little about how it works. To be fair, most of the news around this program over the past decade has been about how it’s doomed in one way or another. Millennials and younger may see the money being taxed from their paychecks and believe they’ll probably never see it again, but is the program really destined to fail? And what do we stand to lose if it does? Check out the video above to get the most basic facts about Social Security in the United States and what to expect in the coming years.

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Sources and further reading:

You can find more interesting history of Social Security and an FAQ sheet here:
https://www.ssa.gov/history
https://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html

For more on who collects (and who doesn’t):
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/population-profiles/fully-insured-workers.html

For more on how Social Security helps lift Americans out of poverty:

Poverty Data Shows Why Social Security Matters to Women and People of Color


https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/social-security-lifts-more-people-above-the-poverty-line-than-any-other

For more on how Social Security is funded including data on the trust funds:
https://www.nasi.org/learn/social-security/where-do-social-security-taxes-go/
https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/WhatAreTheTrust.htm
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4a3.html

source

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46 COMMENTS

  4. the best thing to do would probably do the first one, a tax on the high income, but they won't like it cuz of it not benefiting them and the sad part is the money they would use to lobby not to do would probably cost the same as if they did pay that tax

  6. Did the video cover the fact that boomers are currently aged 60-78 and how many are expected to be left by 2033? Or how many started collecting the reduced benefits at 62 instead of waiting until 70 to get the max benefits? If life expectancy is 74, do you earn more money with 12 years at the reduced rate or 4 years with the max rate, or does it make a difference? Does a person who retires at 70 have an expected lifespan longer than someone who retires at 62? Are more people right now considering staying in the work force beyond 62 due to economic reasons and how do their continued contributions factor in? What percentage of Gen Xers, due up for early retirement in about 3 years, actually contributed to 401ks or other retirement savings accounts because they were told 30 years ago that social security wasn't going to be around? Some day there will be fewer boomers than Millenials and Gen Xers voting, would they be okay with raising the current payroll deduction from 6.2% to maybe 6.5% in order to keep the program afloat?

  8. Don't worry, the government will just raise taxes on working people to cover the difference and bail out the boomers (who went through one of the strongest economies in human history and still didn't manage to save for retirement)…

  13. No, the high do not pay the taxes after you make $147,000 dollars you go SNN tax free for the rest of the year.
    Trump, old Joe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Gates, Elon Musk.
    Only pay until they hit $147,000 after that they are free.
    SSN has lots of money just tax up to,200,000 dollars, and the government will have the money 😊

  14. Non-American, but all countries face the same problem. To be honest the best thing would be all 5 options combined. Raise 1% Tax, reduce a little bit of benefit, increase the retirment age about 1 year, tax the rich a fair amount. Better today than tomorrow.

  15. Remove social security completely. Let me take that money I send to the government and put it in my own retirement account that I have control over. Guaranteed to have a higher rate of return than anything the govt touches.

  19. How heartwarming to hear how we all come together and love a program that takes my money, preventing me from investing it myself, and then gives me back a pittance of what I could have otherwise earned by putting that money into an investment program. Oh how amazing it is to be robbed blind by the government and then told to be thankful for it.

  21. Dear Vox: your headline should be more along the lines of "Has the country been tricked into underfunding promised programs?"

    Oops. That might upset your shareholders.

  25. there's also the part where they modernize it with Superannuation rather than Social Security… kinda don't know why USA doesn't do that considering it's a capitalist economy and all

  27. What should happen is to remove the cap on ss taxes. There is no rational argument against this with income inequality at its most extreme since the 1890s. After that, whatever additional cuts and tax increases will be far smaller and more manageable.

    That said, given our political system and lobbying, this is the last thing I expect to actually happen

  28. If we do cut Social Security entirely, that means the 12.4% that would have been taxed can now be used to pay workers more. Not to mention the opportunity and administrative cost of that.

  34. They have been beating this drum since the nineteen eighties. They supposedly fixed it then when they raised the retirement age the first time. Of course immigration may fix the demographic problem or people won’t actually live forever.

  38. "You pay 6%, your employer pays 6%"

    No, you pay at all, that is part of the employer's cost of employing you and it's all your money being siphoned off into SocSec.

  40. 🤔 Problems not covered.

    1. COLA (inflation who pays)
    2. Cap on time limit, it's until death? (Living till 145 with better future medicine)
    3. If you are cryogenically preserved at 65, does the government pay for SSI while preserved and the compounded interest when reawakened?
    4. If in the future we can preserve an individuals conscious into a machine to live forever, will SSI cover that time?

    Vox need to ask tough outside the box thinking, not just the puff info.

  41. SS taxes are idiotic. Stop stealing people's money. I dont plan to collect social security, because im positive it wont be around when i retire. If i took out the SS taxes for every year i have worked, and put it in the stock market. I would be easily 10 years closer to retirement, and currently im 45.

  42. 6:53 absolutley love how she points out how hypocritical everyone is across political spectrum. "see everyone wants to tax the rich more, but the other options that would tax YOU slightly more? NOW we've got a big problem"
    yes, do it to them but not me! justice i say

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