Email to Michael Medved, Radio Talk Show Host
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20120706            Government

To: medvedmail@medvedshow.com
From: Scott Sinnock ssinnock@netzero.com, 4:28 pm, July 6, 2012
Subject: Social Security Imbalance

Michael,

I enjoy your honesty about social security. Most people I know think they are getting screwed, because they believe they will not get as much out of SS as they put in, let alone the interest. How sad that such a lie is believed by so many. Attached is a simple EXCEL 2010 spreadsheet yo

Scott Sinnock

In the attached PDF: Social Security Constributions and Benefits
  • salary history is from SSA's web site;
  • ROI on each "account" is assumed to be half the prime rounded to nearest whole compatible with analyses that show a 3-4% ROI for the SSI fund
  • future assumed COLA's are good numbers to play with, I assume fairly low, steady inflation, which will probably underestimate SSI payments, because:
What do you do to get rid of debt? Inflate! Inflate! Inflate! and it seems the social democracies have a lot of debt now. An interesting observation from the spreadsheet is that a small burst of high inflation followed by lower rates is more "damaging" than more or less steady inflation I assume in the enclosed scenario, so my estimates in the leading text probably underestimate the "unearned" benefits. Maybe we will wake up and stop the COLA's. but I can just hear the howls of protest now.
d numbers to play with, I assume fairly low, steady inflation, which will probably underestimate SSI payments, because: What do you do to get rid of debt? Inflate! Inflate! Inflate! and it seems the social democracies have a lot of debt now. An interesting observation from the spreadsheet is that a small burst of high inflation followed by lower rates is more "damaging" than more or less steady inflation I assume in the enclosed scenario, so my estimates in the leading text probably underestimate the "unearned" benefits. Maybe we will wake up and stop the COLA's. but I can just hear the howls of protest now.

I attached an Excel speadsheet that contained the reworked PDF