What happens to the people who invested in social security but were not able to reap the benefits when they are retired? Or is there a way to avoid that whilst still ending social security.
The die.
Jokes aside (even if it was a bad one), there is a broad misunderstanding among the US population what Social Security is (so do not feel uneducated; just miseducated). Social Security is not an account you accumulate through payments over your life. Instead, Social Security is a scheme in which current payers fund the current recipients' payments.
If we were to end Social Security, it would be unwise, and even unfair to cut it for current recipients. If they knew it wasn't going to be present when they were retired, they would have invested more into a retirement account. The best plan that I can think of off the top of my head would be to ensure 100% benefits for current retirements, and for every year someone is from retirement age, reduce the benefits paid during retirement by some arbitrary percentage, say 1-3%. This puts a sunset on the failed program while enabling those closer to retirement age to not have to prepare as much as someone just entering the workforce.
Jokes aside (even if it was a bad one), there is a broad misunderstanding among the US population what Social Security is (so do not feel uneducated; just miseducated). Social Security is not an account you accumulate through payments over your life. Instead, Social Security is a scheme in which current payers fund the current recipients' payments.
If we were to end Social Security, it would be unwise, and even unfair to cut it for current recipients. If they knew it wasn't going to be present when they were retired, they would have invested more into a retirement account. The best plan that I can think of off the top of my head would be to ensure 100% benefits for current retirements, and for every year someone is from retirement age, reduce the benefits paid during retirement by some arbitrary percentage, say 1-3%. This puts a sunset on the failed program while enabling those closer to retirement age to not have to prepare as much as someone just entering the workforce.