undefined | Better HN

0 pointsSteko13y ago0 comments

Here's an interactive Social Security reformer, it's a year and a half old but the basic math still holds:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230418640457639...

Anyone who thinks Social Security is in crisis is misinformed. It's easily fixable for the foreseeable future without touching benefits. Remove the cap for high earners but keep the current benefit limits.

0 comments

smsm4213y ago

Since the benefits are capped, Social Security can be fixed by raising taxes, of course. This would mean abandoning all pretense that Social Security is some kind of self-paying insurance/pension program but it is pretty much done by now anyway. Medicare is much worse - it is projected to grow to almost 20% GDP next 70 years, which means to pay for it you'd need to double the taxes - which is what I mean by confiscatory taxation levels.

StekoOP13y ago

"Medicare is much worse - it is projected to grow to almost 20% GDP next 70 years"

Besides the fact that 70 year projections are basically exercises in futility, this statement is not accurate.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html

Under current law, projected Medicare cost rises to 5.7 percent of GDP by 2035, largely due to the growth in the number of beneficiaries, and then to 6.7 percent in 2086

smsm4213y ago

CBO here: http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/93xx... has very different picture. I think the figures you have do not include the raise in medical costs per individual.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsSteko13y ago0 comments

Here's an interactive Social Security reformer, it's a year and a half old but the basic math still holds:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230418640457639...

0 comments

smsm4213y ago

StekoOP13y ago

"Medicare is much worse - it is projected to grow to almost 20% GDP next 70 years"

Besides the fact that 70 year projections are basically exercises in futility, this statement is not accurate.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html

Under current law, projected Medicare cost rises to 5.7 percent of GDP by 2035, largely due to the growth in the number of beneficiaries, and then to 6.7 percent in 2086

smsm4213y ago

CBO here: http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/93xx... has very different picture. I think the figures you have do not include the raise in medical costs per individual.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse