What would FDR think of todays Social Security?
Let’s find out… The commanding fact driving the unavoidable future reform of today’s Social Security is the circa $15 trillion “backward transfer” made by the system to prior generations — the amount by which benefits received by workers of the past exceeded the taxes they paid in — which must be paid for somehow by workers of the future, in addition to paying for their own benefits. Social Security is a “paygo” system in which total taxes equal total benefits, so if one group receives from it $X more than they pay in, everyone else in the system must receive back from it $X less than they pay in, by arithmetic. It’s inescapable. Thus, workers of today and the future must take a loss from Social Security to the same extent that earlier generations received a gain — $15 trillion. When I say reform is unavoidable, I am including in the term “reform” the inevitable tax increases/benefit cuts for today’s workers that will be forced even if the status quo system stays in place, to clos
