Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[MONYMAN3]

More on Social Security: The prior numbers I got were from a MSN article that I am not able to find again. This article gives even more dire deficit numbers.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-03-debt-cover_x.htm

"Consider a married couple who throughout their lives earned the median income — the amount at which half of Americans make more and half make less — and who will retire at age 65 next year. They earned $46,400 in their final year of work.

Mr. and Mrs. Median would get a joint Medicare benefit valued at $283,500, the Urban Institute estimates. That's the present value of the benefit — what it's worth today — not the larger amount the government will actually pay over the years. But the couple would have paid only $43,300 in Medicare taxes (valued in 2004 dollars). Taxpayers lose $240,200 on the deal.

But the Medians' good fortune doesn't end there. They also qualify for $22,900 in annual Social Security benefits, which rise annually with inflation.

Present value of the Social Security benefit: $326,000. Present value of Social Security taxes paid over a lifetime: $198,000.

Net loss to taxpayers: $128,000."

_____________________________________________________________
More from the Dallas Federal Reserve.





http://www.dallasfed.org/research/indepth/2004/id0404.html


Rob