Labor Department: America Has Less Than Two Workers For Every Social Security Retiree
The Social Security program is in deficit, meaning it pays out more in benefits than it collects in revenues, and will be for the foreseeable future. The Social Security trust fund is an accounting fairy tale, being nothing more than bonds issued by the US Treasury.
So, quite literally, every 1.75 American workers is not only working to support themselves and their families but also some stranger on Social Security as well.
(CNSNews.com) – There were only 1.75 full-time private-sector workers in the United States last year for each person receiving benefits from Social Security, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Social Security board of trustees.
That means that for each husband and wife who worked full-time in the private sector last year there was a Social Security recipient somewhere in the country taking benefits from the federal government. …
In its latest annual report, the Social Security board of trustees reported that the federal government’s total revenue from Social Security taxes in 2010—$544.8 billion—was not enough to cover Social Security’s total benefit payments—$577.4 billion.
But according to the Social Security apologists, we just need to tweak the program to fix it. And by tweak, they mean Americans should pay more into the program in order to get less out of it.
Which is a raw deal.
Tags: social security
