Social Security Administration - SSA

Will the Social Security Administration (SSA) make it to 100 years old...or just "Par," as they like to say?

It was created in 1935 by FDR as a way to provide Americans insurance...social insurance. Insure a minimum living standard for yourself. Not a bad idea. Think: squirrels. Nut-saving for long winters.

Depending on how much you pay in taxes, i.e. "what you put into the system," you’re supposed to get it paid back out to you proportionally in retirement income down the road in Social Security cash payments and benefits. Besides retirement income, the SSA gives benefits to orphans and disabled folk...basically, people who can’t work, but are still living. Yep, the SSA administers Medicaid (aid for people who need it) and Medicare (care for old people).

And note the "supposed to" thing in there. Social Security assumed people would die in their mid-to-late-60s, and that they'd die fast (i.e. cheaply). But...they're not. And today, Social Security will threaten the entire economic system of America if its precepts aren't changed soon. Huge political hot button. Those who scrimped and saved and sacrificed aren't happy being taxed at very high rates, or receiving no SS benefits, "because they have now too much money," even though others who had the same financial lives spent lavishly, and now can just suck down Government money to live. Fair? No, of course not. But like...who told you the world was fair?

Anyway, the SSA is funded by payroll taxes, a good chunk of those withheld taxes from your paycheck. That‘s about 15% of all government spending...for now. That percentage will nearly double by 2025 (based on estimates by smart people), as the old live longer, and the sickly don't die conveniently soon enough.

While the Social Security Administration is considered a success by the Left, many see it as a balloon waiting to pop. The money you’re paying in taxes that goes toward Social Security is being paid to current retirees. And because there was a boom of babies (the Baby Boomers) all retiring at once, and people are having fewer kids now, it’s a lot of money for the current working class to cover. They can't cover it. So many who have more than a single pot to piss in will end up receiving virtually no Social Security, even though they paid into the pot their whole lives.

The system is based on a big base paying for a smaller group of retirees, but things are looking topsy-turvy, and Social Security is running out of money, with more going out than is coming in. Time will tell if Social Security makes it to 100.