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Young Americans turn against Boomers over Social Security (www.newsweek.com)

submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave to c/news

78 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z say the system needs reform, an exclusive Newsweek poll found, amid fears the benefits won’t exist when they come to retire

Younger generations in the U.S., including millennials and Gen Zers, are much more likely to believe that the Social Security system needs reforming than those in their 60s and 70s, according to a recent survey conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek.

...

Some 40 percent of respondents said they believe that the Social Security program currently pays out more to retirees than it is receiving in Social Security tax payments, while 26 percent disagreed with this statement.

Gen Zers (ages 18-26), millennials (ages 27-42) and Gen Xers (ages 43-58) were more likely than boomers (59 and older) to think that Social Security should be reformed.

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[–] ChicoSuave 233 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (9 children)

This is a propaganda article. It's meant to start the idea that social security change should happen; Social Security had a surplus and was on track to support Gen Z with boomer level benefits until George W Bush drained the fund to pay for the Iraq war. A 100 billion+ surplus (which would have been 2T by 2011) was sucked dry at a billion dollars a day for a war that brought nothing but misery. This current crisis is brought to you by the Republicans.

Social Security is currently facing an uncertain future as it is expected to face a 23 percent across-the-board benefit cut in 2033, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, unless something changes until then.

Some bullshit conservative think tank is trying to spin up the idea of cutting benefits to prevent taxing billionaires. Don't let the rich lie anymore. Make the rich pay!

[–] gibmiser 41 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Man, wish we could have put that money in some sort of locked box...

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago

Oh yesh, the "locked box" tag lines. Again and again and again during speeches, debates, and articles. Back when news cycles and ongoing stories were measured in weeks rather than hours.

[–] eek2121 27 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Social Security should be reformed. The surplus should be given back and laws passed that forbid touching it. Further:

The amount paid out should be significantly increased (after decades of working I would make less than $3,000/mo on SSDI, for example, which isn’t enough for me to live on my own even)
There should be no income cap for taxation purposes
The retirement age should be lowered to 60 and taxes/formulas modified accordingly.
It should not take years for anyone to make it through applying for disability.

Honestly, Social Security should also be responsible for paid sick/family leave, short term and long term temp/perm disability, unemployment, etc. We in the US could have it so much better…

[–] captainlezbian 5 points 6 months ago

Yeah and it should be allowed to hold companies that are bailed out as long as its financial advisers choose.

Hell when it’s time for UBI this is the administration to do it

[–] Pacmanlives 9 points 6 months ago

Your forgetting Ronald Reagan was the one who started borrowing from it and saying here is an IOU

[–] nbafantest 8 points 6 months ago

There has never been a separate fund. The "money" is still there, its in IOU's.

[–] captainlezbian 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (12 children)

Yeah it’s not enough to live on. I want to be able to survive on social security when I’m old, so I’ll fight for old people to be able to survive on it now. And a little something for a surplus.

Taxes aren’t why you’re poor, shit pay is

Also social security for all is UBI, we can demand that

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[–] FlowVoid 6 points 6 months ago

George W Bush drained the fund to pay for the Iraq war

Not really. Bush ended Clinton's budget surplus and replaced it with a budget deficit, and I won't argue if you hold the wars responsible.

But SS is not part of the normal budget. It was running a surplus in the Bush years. There was a debate over what to do with the surplus.

Keeping it "stuffed in a mattress" would be irresponsible for the same reason most of us don't keep our life savings in a checking account. Bush wanted to invest it in the stock market, but the public rightly thought that was too risky. So it was invested in the most risk-free asset: Treasury bonds.

That means that the government could spend the surplus, but they are required to pay it back with interest. Failing to pay back SS would trigger a default, no different than crashing through the debt ceiling.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

The Social Security Trust Fund is nearly $3T

[–] FlashMobOfOne 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

This current crisis is brought to you by the Republicans.

It's probably important to consider that the Iraq war was enthusiastically bipartisan with one glaring exception: Bernie Sanders. Therefore, it's not entirely honest to (rightly) fault the Iraq War as a starting point for the problems with SS and not also fault Democrats for their role in making those decisions.

Make the rich pay!

This is the only way to fix the problem, but it's never going to happen. Every two years we vote for legislators who are fabulously wealthy and have made all manner of corruption legal for federal legislators. (ie, loaning your campaign money at interest, insider trading, using classified briefings for stock moves, etc.)

Now's a good time to repeat what I do every campaign season: Don't give candidates your money. Put it in your investments, and then no matter who is elected, you will have some representation as both parties care more about the stock market than they do about you.

[–] ripcord 6 points 6 months ago

It's probably important to consider that the Iraq war was enthusiastically bipartisan with one glaring exception: Bernie Sanders. Therefore, it's not entirely honest to (rightly) fault the Iraq War as a starting point for the problems with SS and not also fault Democrats for their role in making those decisions.

I mean...126 democrats in the house voted against it. Only 6 Republicans and one Independent (Bernie) voted against it. Democrats did play a role, but it's not nearly so "both sides!!" as you're trying to make it here.

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[–] phoneymouse 107 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Millennials and Gen-Z need to be fucking pissed about any one spouting the bs talking point that social security will just dry up by the time we retire so it’s best not to count on it. Social Security is something we’ve all paid in to, so it better fucking be there when we retire. That’s the deal. I realize there is a funding shortfall, but the fix is damn easy and simply involves removing the exemption the rich currently have.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I wonder who benefits from this bs. What's even the goal?

[–] phoneymouse 18 points 6 months ago

For the rich? For corporations? Paying less tax. The rich can afford to retire. They don’t give a damn if you can. Actually, better for them if you can’t since you’ll just be another worker in the labor force up until the moment you drop dead or can’t work anymore and become a homeless elderly person.

[–] Nudding 3 points 6 months ago

If you're under 50 and expecting to retire someday, I've got some bad news about the climate.

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[–] [email protected] 105 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Easiest and fairest way to fix this is to stop exempting high earners and investment income from SS tax.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Just for those unaware - the social security pay-in is a percentage of your income, but the maximum amount of your income subject to social security withholding is capped at a fixed level that increases annually. The last time I looked, the cutoff was somewhere around $138k. So if your cumulative income for the year hits $138k in, say, June, you are no longer subject to SS withholding and your weekly paycheck goes up by a couple of hundred dollars or so as a result. Most people don’t hit this amount, but enough do that were the cap eliminated, it would increase solvency and possibly allow for an increase in payouts.

On the flip side, your payout from social security is proportional to what your pay in was. It’s still capped, and it’s not really enough to live on. Those who hit the cap typically have multiple other sources of savings for retirement and could easily contribute more to the national program.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It’s 168k now for those interested: https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/social-security-wage-base-increases-to-168600-in-2024/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm sorry but this disproportionately affects W2 workers who live in HCOL areas. I've paid into social security since I started working in HS. I'm now a 34 year old, and am expecting nothing during my retirement years as I've been told. Naturally I'm saving up with a 401k and Roth IRA, and you're saying it's okay to drain more from me because I am planning on there being nothing left for me?

I don't agree with that. Why can't we do a wealth tax first and see where we are, why must we hit W2 folks over the head every time.

[–] mipadaitu 10 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Yes, it's ok to take more from you because it's how social security can be offered to everyone, including you.

You say you're putting money away into retirement because you don't think social security will be there. Then you say you don't want to help make social security there for everyone. The whole point is that if millions of people like you were able to add a little more to the bucket, then it would make life better for everyone.

This isn't increasing taxes to start a war, or to bail out billionaires, this is real, tangible benefits to every citizen.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Yeah, it disproportionately affects W2 workers making over 140k per year or so. Thats fine. That’s the way things are supposed to be.

It’s not hitting “W2 folks” to extend withholding beyond $140k. It’s doing the appropriate thing and not giving them a free ride. If you want to additionally hit up the people who are living off of the various ways you can monetize wealth, that’s fine too. I’m in favor of a wealth tax. I think that’s also fair. I think Warren proposed a 2% tax on holdings over $4M. I support that. That’s still different than SS withholding.

Let’s say you’re making a whopping $150k. That means that you’ll pay (and I am probably overestimating) a few hundred dollars a year into the SS fund. It’s not a noticeable amount, whether you live in a HCOL area or not. It’s a nice dinner, stretched out over 365 days worth of payments.

It’s a trivial amount of money for an individual, which when spread over the population of the country, can make the difference to the majority of the population. I’m very much down with that.

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[–] Earthwormjim91 30 points 6 months ago

As one of those high earners, yes. Absolutely. I’d even say do it like Medicare and above a certain income you pay a slightly higher rate that normal too.

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Some 40 percent of respondents said they believe that the Social Security program currently pays out more to retirees than it is receiving in Social Security tax payments, while 26 percent disagreed with this statement.

And who's right? Do your fucking job, Newsweek!

[–] FlyingSquid 9 points 6 months ago

The media doesn't care about right and wrong anymore. Right and wrong doesn't sell soap as well as giving you something you can agree with or disagree with to fit a certain ideology to keep your eyes glued to their channel or website.

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[–] Smoogs 46 points 6 months ago

Yes it should be reformed in the way that the rich should be properly taxed and loopholes like bullshit charities shut down and forced to pay a living wage . I don’t think this is generational so much as classism and late stage capitalism. Im done caring about this stupid generational war between genz at boomers. I’m all about seeing Musk/bezos/Zuckerberg/Chesky cry rather than Mable who worked and paid taxes as a nurse all her life and just needs to retire. Let her. Move on. Let’s stop waxing on about how the boomers had a money fall way back in the 80s cuz it’s no longer the same damage at fucking over the system as these current generations that sucked up the Silicon Valley straw. They are still here. They are still doing the most damage in current day that is directly influencing the lives of the new generations with wage stealing and denying affordable let alone available housing would have direct impact on their social security.

[–] Illuminostro 42 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No, its billionaires who absolutely hate paying any amount of taxes. But they have no problem bribing anyone to get their way.

We need guillotines.

[–] nbafantest 38 points 6 months ago (1 children)

One easy way to make social security fund on better footing is to allow more immigrants into this country who will be paying SS taxes.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (2 children)

If you change nothing else you will still run out of money in the fund if the population ever starts to stagmate or decline again. It is basically a pyramid scheme. Importing more people is only a short term fix.

[–] nbafantest 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't think our country will ever struggle with immigrants wanting to move here

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[–] Custoslibera 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Run out of money?

You can just make more money, seriously.

All countries can just go into a bigger and bigger debt. It doesn’t matter, money is made up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Money isn't "made up". It's valuable because a government will only accept it to pay taxes. You can't pay taxes with anything else. Businesses keep local currency and accept payment in it (but not foreign currency) for this reason.

There's no reason to run up debt when corporate or income taxes can be raised. The US has some of the lowest taxes in the developed world. Increasing them is only a political problem, not a financial one. This may become more obvious when the Social Security trust fund gets lower in a few decades.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago

So the generations that have heard all their life that their will not be any social security for them when they get old think it should change and the people currently getting it do not think it should change?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (2 children)

There just recently was a good episode on citations needed on this kind of fearmongering

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/episode-194-the-graying-population-panic-and-the-90-year-war-on-social-security

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Came here to post this. Citations Needed completely changed how I view issues like this.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

reframe[s] the conflict between rich and poor as one between young and old

TL;DR

[–] CuddlyCassowary 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

GenX here, we got mentioned twice - yay? Yeah, we don’t exist…and I think we’re mostly ok with that.

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[–] FuglyDuck 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Boomers really are the generation of “Got Mine, Fuck You”

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Social Security is not going to run dry.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Our generation is going to have less children, so who’s going to pay into it when you’re too old to work?

[–] nbafantest 5 points 6 months ago

There are literally people sneaking into this country that would love to pay into SS

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Tl;Dr: 26% of the respondents simply don't know what they're talking about.

Honestly I'm surprised it's that low

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

This same shit gets pulled in the UK... people complain that the state pension won't exist when they retire. Thats just bullshit, with no evidence that something like that will happen, because it would never gets passed in the commons.

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