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Finance social security cash money government debt

Porkopolis Economics: Episode 149

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Porkopolis Economics covers macroeconomics, money, and sports from the creator of the Crypto Voices podcast, Matthew Mezinskis.

This episode was recorded on September 25th, 2024.

In this episode, we continue our Social Security series. The Social Security program has been running deficits in recent years, paying out more than it receives from payroll taxes - For the first 70 years, Social Security mostly ran surpluses, accumulating over $1 trillion by 2008 - However, these "surpluses" did not actually exist as real savings - the government simply collected more in taxes than it paid out each year - The overall U.S. government has run large deficits, with nearly $40 trillion in debt, suggesting the Social Security "surplus" was spent elsewhere - The reported $2.8 trillion Trust Fund balance assumes the government will pay interest on prior surpluses, which may not be feasible given the high national debt.

Figures pulled from 2024 Social Security Administration Supplement: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/supplement/2024/index.html

Table 4.A1: Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund: Receipts, expenditures, and assets, 1937–2023 (in millions of dollars)

Table 4.A2: Disability Insurance Trust Fund: Receipts, expenditures, and assets, 1957–2023 (in millions of dollars)

00:00:00 - Understanding the Social Security Trust Fund
00:02:02 - The Accumulating Social Security Surplus
00:05:26 - Secured Bitcoin Lending with Transparent Escrow
00:08:34 - The Illusion of Social Security Surpluses
00:10:32 - The Depletion of Social Security's Cumulative Surplus
00:12:42 - Social Security Cuts and Tricks
00:13:28 - Calculating Social Security's Cumulative Surplus with Interest Income
00:14:56 - The Unsustainable Debt of the U.S. Government
00:18:58 - The Illusion of Social Security Surplus
00:20:46 - Deficits, Surpluses, and the Lack of Funds