Disability vs Uneducated Drains on American Dream

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http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

"Somewhere around 30 years ago, the economy started changing in some fundamental ways. There are now millions of Americans who do not have the skills or education to make it in this country.

"Politicians pay lip service to this problem during election cycles, but American leaders have not sat down and come up with a comprehensive plan.

"In the meantime, federal disability programs became our extremely expensive default plan. The two big disability programs, including health care for disabled workers, cost some $260 billion a year.

"People at the Social Security Administration, which runs the federal disability programs, say we cannot afford this. The reserves in the disability insurance program are on track to run out in 2016, Steve Goss, the chief actuary at Social Security, told me.

"Goss is confident that Congress will act to keep disability payments flowing, probably by taking money from the Social Security retirement fund. Of course, the retirement fund itself is on track to run out of money by 2035.

"Goss and his colleagues have worked out a temporary fix under which the retirement and disability funds will both run out of money by 2033. He says he hopes the country will have come up with a better plan by then."

Great article. The article is more nuanced & nowhere near as inflammatory as my heading. Thoughts?

 

My solution would be to increase employer and employee contributions to SS. In fact, I'd jack up the payments to Medicare too while I'm at it. If you start now, before it runs dry, you won't need to increase it nearly as much as if you wait for it to run out. Increasing each by 0.25% today, heads off a 2%-3% jump down the road.