Whats wrong with the current Social Security system?
You probably know that most of the money that is taken out of your paycheck for Social Security isn’t put away for you to use when you retire – it’s used to provide immediate benefits to today’s retirees. But more Americans are retiring every year, and they’re living longer lives. For example, in 1950, there were about 16 workers paying Social Security taxes for every one retiree who drew benefits from the system. Today there are only about three workers for every retiree. This means that there aren’t enough workers to support the rising number of retirees. Within the next 12 years, Social Security will begin to pay out more money in retirement benefits than it takes in in payroll taxes and the system will no longer be able to sustain America’s retirees. In order to maintain the current system, we would have to either cut retirement benefits by nearly one-third or raise the Social Security tax by approximately 50 percent.
