At first, the news report that said that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget had created a Social Security calculator to determine how old readers will be when the Social Security Fund becomes insolvent seemed like a joke.
The report showed a Social Security calculator where readers submit their birth year. It notes the projected year of insolvency for Social Security is 2034. It appeared quite the sad interactive tool to ask people to use a calculator to see how old they will be when Social Security runs out when only two variables are at play. Did we really become such dullards that we couldn’t subtract our birth year from 2034? It’s simple math.
Well, turns out there’s more to the CRFB’s “Social Security Reformer” than just calculating your age in the year the retirement system goes bankrupt.
The CRFB’s interactive program “allows users to choose from a number of options to modify Social Security tax and benefit levels in order to close the program’s 75-year shortfall and keep it sustainable for future generations.”
In other words, it’s a do-it-yourself experiment for fixing Social Security.
CRFB offers a lot of suggestions on the revenue and distribution sides of the equation, including some that don’t get much mainstream attention, like requiring state and local government workers who are exempt from paying into the system, but who receive benefits from the system, to pay. Or indexing the retirement age to longevity projections. Certainly, seniors are living longer, which contributes to the strain on the system, so that’s an option ready for a correction.
Several suggestions are available that will raise and lower the bar graph’s lines on projected outcomes to determine how long Social Security can be extended.
The tool should be particularly engaging for young workers, those who are certain to lose out.
Many millennials live their lives differently than previous generations — they work fewer hours in the work week, and say they are the “experience” generation which prefers “tiny houses” and free time to large homes and luxury cars. But living fanciful experiences means many are neither savvy nor realistic about their retirement savings, and they are not saving what they need. They are also over-reliant on employer contributions to retirement plans, if and when they get them.
If Social Security isn’t reformed, and is left on its current trajectory, in 2034, “all beneficiaries regardless of age and income will face an immediate 21 percent benefit cut.”
Some in the Millennial and Gen X generations who are contributing to the system and are doing the math realize they are going to come up on the short end of the stick. So, at this point, just 18 years from insolvency, is it too late to fix Social Security?
Probably not, but why not be part of the solution? Play with the “Social Security Reformer” and become a fixer. You can even submit your work for review at the CRFB calculator.
