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From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: =?UTF-8?Q?Re=3A_=E2=80=9CThe_US_Likely_Has_8_Years=E2=80=94At_Most?=
 =?UTF-8?B?4oCUQmVmb3JlIENyaXNpc+KAnQ==?=
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2025 12:15:01 -0400 (EDT)
Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000)
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Robert Carnegie  <rja.carnegie@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Is the crisis because the OAS fund cannot
>pay elderly SS subscribers due to the government
>pilfering it, or is it because the government
>pilfering has to stop when the money is all gone?

The government pilfering is a problem, and it's been happening since
Reagan.  

The aging population is also a problem, with fewer younger people paying
into the system as more aging people are paid by it.  (And yes, higher
immigration rates can fix this one.)

Some people have made the argument that mathematically, if the cap on
income was removed from the social security witholdings, so that 
billionaires were paying at the same percentage rate as millionaires
instead of the same amount, that it would solve the current OAS deficit
problem.  This is true, and it's certainly a good plan from any viewpoint
except that of the very rich, but it's also kicking the can down the road
a bit since eventually the very rich are likely to get paid back a good
portion of that a generation later.
--scott

-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."