Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z say the system needs reform, an exclusive Newsweek poll found, amid fears the benefits won’t exist when they come to retire
Younger generations in the U.S., including millennials and Gen Zers, are much more likely to believe that the Social Security system needs reforming than those in their 60s and 70s, according to a recent survey conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek.
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Some 40 percent of respondents said they believe that the Social Security program currently pays out more to retirees than it is receiving in Social Security tax payments, while 26 percent disagreed with this statement.
Gen Zers (ages 18-26), millennials (ages 27-42) and Gen Xers (ages 43-58) were more likely than boomers (59 and older) to think that Social Security should be reformed.
This is a propaganda article. It's meant to start the idea that social security change should happen; Social Security had a surplus and was on track to support Gen Z with boomer level benefits until George W Bush drained the fund to pay for the Iraq war. A 100 billion+ surplus (which would have been 2T by 2011) was sucked dry at a billion dollars a day for a war that brought nothing but misery. This current crisis is brought to you by the Republicans.
Social Security is currently facing an uncertain future as it is expected to face a 23 percent across-the-board benefit cut in 2033, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, unless something changes until then.
Some bullshit conservative think tank is trying to spin up the idea of cutting benefits to prevent taxing billionaires. Don't let the rich lie anymore. Make the rich pay!
Millennials and Gen-Z need to be fucking pissed about any one spouting the bs talking point that social security will just dry up by the time we retire so it’s best not to count on it. Social Security is something we’ve all paid in to, so it better fucking be there when we retire. That’s the deal. I realize there is a funding shortfall, but the fix is damn easy and simply involves removing the exemption the rich currently have.
For the rich? For corporations? Paying less tax. The rich can afford to retire. They don’t give a damn if you can. Actually, better for them if you can’t since you’ll just be another worker in the labor force up until the moment you drop dead or can’t work anymore and become a homeless elderly person.
Just for those unaware - the social security pay-in is a percentage of your income, but the maximum amount of your income subject to social security withholding is capped at a fixed level that increases annually. The last time I looked, the cutoff was somewhere around $138k. So if your cumulative income for the year hits $138k in, say, June, you are no longer subject to SS withholding and your weekly paycheck goes up by a couple of hundred dollars or so as a result. Most people don’t hit this amount, but enough do that were the cap eliminated, it would increase solvency and possibly allow for an increase in payouts.
On the flip side, your payout from social security is proportional to what your pay in was. It’s still capped, and it’s not really enough to live on. Those who hit the cap typically have multiple other sources of savings for retirement and could easily contribute more to the national program.
Yes. That is what I said. I think it’s not a valid justification.
By way of analogy, let’s say we move to a point of tuition-free public college, which I also support. My taxes which go to support those colleges would be far higher than those of most people, but my kids, were I to have any, would receive the exact same benefit from a financial standpoint as people whose taxes contributed far less to none.
My property taxes are somewhere around $25k per year. They go largely to support a public school system which, as a person without children, I receive zero direct benefit from. Should I get a lower property tax because I am a person without kids despite having a higher income and higher valued property? Or should I be taxed relative to my ability to support the community? Should a family that makes a quarter of what I do but have four kids pay more than me?
I'm sorry but this disproportionately affects W2 workers who live in HCOL areas. I've paid into social security since I started working in HS. I'm now a 34 year old, and am expecting nothing during my retirement years as I've been told. Naturally I'm saving up with a 401k and Roth IRA, and you're saying it's okay to drain more from me because I am planning on there being nothing left for me?
I don't agree with that. Why can't we do a wealth tax first and see where we are, why must we hit W2 folks over the head every time.
Yes, it's ok to take more from you because it's how social security can be offered to everyone, including you.
You say you're putting money away into retirement because you don't think social security will be there. Then you say you don't want to help make social security there for everyone. The whole point is that if millions of people like you were able to add a little more to the bucket, then it would make life better for everyone.
This isn't increasing taxes to start a war, or to bail out billionaires, this is real, tangible benefits to every citizen.
Yeah, it disproportionately affects W2 workers making over 140k per year or so. Thats fine. That’s the way things are supposed to be.
It’s not hitting “W2 folks” to extend withholding beyond $140k. It’s doing the appropriate thing and not giving them a free ride. If you want to additionally hit up the people who are living off of the various ways you can monetize wealth, that’s fine too. I’m in favor of a wealth tax. I think that’s also fair. I think Warren proposed a 2% tax on holdings over $4M. I support that. That’s still different than SS withholding.
Let’s say you’re making a whopping $150k. That means that you’ll pay (and I am probably overestimating) a few hundred dollars a year into the SS fund. It’s not a noticeable amount, whether you live in a HCOL area or not. It’s a nice dinner, stretched out over 365 days worth of payments.
It’s a trivial amount of money for an individual, which when spread over the population of the country, can make the difference to the majority of the population. I’m very much down with that.
As one of those high earners, yes. Absolutely. I’d even say do it like Medicare and above a certain income you pay a slightly higher rate that normal too.
Some 40 percent of respondents said they believe that the Social Security program currently pays out more to retirees than it is receiving in Social Security tax payments, while 26 percent disagreed with this statement.
The media doesn't care about right and wrong anymore. Right and wrong doesn't sell soap as well as giving you something you can agree with or disagree with to fit a certain ideology to keep your eyes glued to their channel or website.
Yes it should be reformed in the way that the rich should be properly taxed and loopholes like bullshit charities shut down and forced to pay a living wage . I don’t think this is generational so much as classism and late stage capitalism. Im done caring about this stupid generational war between genz at boomers. I’m all about seeing Musk/bezos/Zuckerberg/Chesky cry rather than Mable who worked and paid taxes as a nurse all her life and just needs to retire. Let her. Move on. Let’s stop waxing on about how the boomers had a money fall way back in the 80s cuz it’s no longer the same damage at fucking over the system as these current generations that sucked up the Silicon Valley straw. They are still here. They are still doing the most damage in current day that is directly influencing the lives of the new generations with wage stealing and denying affordable let alone available housing would have direct impact on their social security.
Wait for the United Auto Workers to line up all their contracts so they end at the same time. Sympathy strikes are illegal in the US because they're too powerful. They're legal in Nordic countries like Sweden and currently being used to wipe the floor with the richest man on Earth.
Hopefully this loophole will stay legal. But the great thing is, it doesn't matter if it's legal if enough people take part. No industry can just fire everyone at once.
If you change nothing else you will still run out of money in the fund if the population ever starts to stagmate or decline again. It is basically a pyramid scheme. Importing more people is only a short term fix.
So the generations that have heard all their life that their will not be any social security for them when they get old think it should change and the people currently getting it do not think it should change?
This same shit gets pulled in the UK... people complain that the state pension won't exist when they retire. Thats just bullshit, with no evidence that something like that will happen, because it would never gets passed in the commons.
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