This post could have as easily been listed in previous blogs we posted about “people who don’t know speak” because it focuses on a web article posted by TV personality, who quotes a financial planner and they both clearly don’t know much about the future of Social Security.
You can access the article here. The author, Yetta Gibson, asks the question “should you even be relying on Social Security benefits for your retirement?” The answer Gibson and a financial planner quoted in the article give is no because there is uncertainty whether Social Security will be around much longer.
Gibson wrote, “there is a possibility Social Security benefits could be cut significantly in the near future or maybe go away altogether.” Depending what your definition of the near future is one could say Gibson is wrong and she is certainly wrong on Social Security going away altogether.
The significant cut Gibson is referring to is the projection that benefits could be cut by up to 21 percent by the year 2035 if there are not changes to Social Security whatsoever, so you can be the judge as to whether 16 years from now is the “near future.” The more serious accuracy issue is with the idea that Social Security may go away all together. I guess there is a chance many things can happen in life, but actually claiming that it is a real possibility that Social Security goes away is a fear tactic. The truth is, according to Social Security, that even reduced payments would be paid to beneficiaries until 2083 if nothing is done to solve Social Security’s funding issues, that is 61 years from now when the majority of people alive today won’t be on this earth any longer. What makes things worse about the article is a financial planner named Lennard Van Der Feltz had the opportunity to set the record straight, but only fueled the fire more when he pondered the question “what if Social Security is available and what if it is not?”
Social Security’s funding issues are a real problem, but articles like these have a sky is falling mentality, and lawmakers are likely to address and solve this issue before benefits are cut 16 years from now, just like they did in 1983 when we faced the last Social Security crisis. Even if they don’t reduced Social Security benefits will be available for the next six decades.
