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Re: News Advisory: Still Crazy -- no nuke waste problem, just doesn't exist ....
The level of social security benefits is fixed by laws that Congress
can modify at will. The level of social security tax is also fixed by
laws. The system pays current retirees at the expense of current
workers, and the rates are set accordingly. The original level of the
tax was 2 percent on workers and on employers, because there were very
few retirees in the social security system. As the number of retirees
has increased, Congress has increased the benefits and indexed them to
inflation. In order to pay for it they have increased the tax.
Some people claim that when the baby boomers, who had few children,
retire, the level of taxes required to support them will be very high,
especially as advances in medicine will cause them to live a long
time. When I retire, the numerous baby boomers will be supporting
what I get from social security. This will be small compared to what
I will get from TIAA-CREF.
TIAA-CREF is an investment based retirement scheme. What I get out of
the system is income from what has been put into it by myself and
my employers. Investment based systems are considered sounder. Some
companies, like social security, pay pensions out of current income.
If the company goes bankrupt, too bad for the employee.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/
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