August 27, 2004
Greenspan on Social Security and Medicare
Greenspan has returned to a topic he has discussed before: the approaching problems with Social Security and Medicare. The basic problem is that the government may have promised more than it can deliver.
Posted by Steve at August 27, 2004 11:08 AMGreenspan could have added that the retirement age will rise whether you privatize Social Security or not.
Posted by: Ron Hardin on August 27, 2004 11:34 AMGreenspan could have added that the Boomers were screwed paying into a fraud for all these years, they are being screwed now still paying into that fraud, and they will be screwed for even thinking they should be able to retire like anyone else.
Posted by: Lee on August 27, 2004 04:29 PMSince Bush has pledged that all those now retired, and the cohort 'close to retirement' (early '60s?), will suffer no diminishment of benefits currently in law, the screwing of the following retirement cohort will be substantial. Estimates are that they will see about a 50% reduction in the benefits currently in law (for SS benefits).
That Bush's signature tax cuts alone comprise almost the entire SS shortfall (thereby doubling the shortfall), Greenspan's (and Steve's) Cassandra warning ignores the largest and most readily available partial fix extant.
Posted by: sofla on August 28, 2004 10:55 AMI still get those cheery pamphlets from SSA telling me how much I will get at retirement--40 years from now! IMHO, they should be required by law to include :
1) an estimated probability of my getting anything at all,
2) a quasi-"confidence interval" based on expected inflows and outflows, keeping law constant, and using the current budget.
3) a historical comparison of returns with a) long-term government bonds, and
b) the S&P 500 index.
