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Comment by throwaway6734 | Hacker News Reader

I don't think that will be the case for social security for much longer. The trust is on the path to running dry over the next 10-15 years and benefits will need to be cut. Romney recently breached the idea of raising retirement age for current workers. Frankly I'm shocked by how few young workers realize how bad of a deal they're getting with the current system

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What choice do they have? At any rate, SS benefits kicked in at 65 originally because that was the lifespan of a worker, more or less. Raising the age is a perfectly reasonable ask if we can get people better affordable ealthcare. Truly disabled people at 65 can of course get SSDI.

It’s easy enough to simply raise the income cap though to shore it up.

Politically, no, that is not simple.

Politically, it's the simplest solution of all. The average American pays FICA on 100% of their income. The people who don't are upper middle class to rich, and nobody is going to weep for the 1 less vacation those people take every year.

Careful there; this is typically when the sob stories start about how one is NOT "upper middle class" when making $150K (more than double the median household income), because they live in expensive areas, etc. One saw a similar outcry when the TCJA removed the ability to deduct SALT taxes for effective income levels around that amount.

The reality is, and has always been, that this group (call it whatever you want) of incomes in the $150K to $400K range is absolutely necessary to include in increased taxation policies to pay for all the spending.

> benefits will need to be cut

You think politicians will be able to do such a thing? If they just decide to print an extra 100B or so every year, combined with allowing the yearly COLA to lag behind reality, maybe the trust fund won't run out after all.

It's a raw deal for everyone in any case, but it's also a third rail issue. Give people an choice between the abstract (deficit spending is bad) and actual changes to their benefits in the negative direction, most people will choose the former.

The only way social security will "run dry" is if Congress lets it die.

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