May 15, 2024

The Only Real Fix For Social Security Is More Babies?

What about more people like these taking the citizenship oath?

     Megan McArdle writes for the Washington Post that "The only real fix to Social Security’s [long term funding] problems? More babies."

    More babies would certainly help but only in the long run. It may be literally impossible for the government to get women to have more babies, anyway. Fertility is a deep cultural thing which may be beyond any incentives the government can provide. Even if you can figure out a way to increase fertility it would be at least a couple of decades before it would help.

    In any case, more babies isn't the only solution. The other solution is increased immigration. That gives an immediate increase in the working age population. Also, for literally centuries, the U.S. economy has been invigorated by the contributions of immigrants. They're good for the U.S. The problem with increased immigration is that those who most want to immigrate to the U.S. tend to be black or brown which enrages a significant portion of the existing population.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your claim that those who oppose uncontrolled illegal immigration is based on race is simply ignorant, hateful and shows a failure in your ability to see others perspectives. You are an ideological bigot.

Anonymous said...

*9:08 - increased != uncontrolled. LOL.

Anonymous said...

Charles is stating facts that can be verified, what do you have to prove your point?

Anonymous said...

Actually if it wasn't for illegal immigrants ss would have probably failed long before now. Why? Because thousands of illegal immigrants work under someone else's number, pay into the system and NEVER collect benefits.

Anonymous said...

@9:08

Charles was referring to increasing legal immigration. Immigration applicants tend to be from black or brown countries for a number of reasons, most notably because the economic disparity between Europe (i.e. white) and the US is far less than the disparity between, say: Africa, Asia, South America, etc. Also, individuals seeking immigration for political reasons, as in they are unhappy enough with their domestic politics to emigrate, generally are not coming from Europe. See: China.

Anonymous said...

@9:27

Immigrants, even illegal ones, commit crime and use services at an absurdly reduced rate compared to citizens because engaging in either crime or using services is a great way to get caught and deported. All of Europe actually does have open borders within the EU. The EU does grant far less asylum than the US, roughly half. But they also grant far more through normal immigration than the US. The US borders are not "open" by any stretch, I should know as I live 40 minutes from the southern border. I suppose the Canadian border is relatively open, but it's also not the major source of illegal immigration. Neither is the southern border, the vast majority of illegal immigration is a result of overstaying a visa after arriving through an international airport. The recent uptick in diseases is due to anti-vaxxers, or religious minorities that have objections to such treatment. I recall in 2019 there was a Measels outbreak specifically attributed to two orthodox Jewish communities. Not to say people who have deeply held convictions against such treatment, just mentioning it as that was not a result of immigrants at all.

Anonymous said...

As Trump said

In the Thursday meeting in which President Trump complained about "having all these people from s***hole countries come here" — and singled out Haiti, El Salvador and Africa as examples — he also added that, "we should have more people from Norway."

What exactly does 9:08 think that means.

And, yes, Immigration as explained by Chief Actuary Goss at NOSSCR is a major plus to the solvency of the Trust Fund and those paying into SS that cannot collect because they are not here legally is an even bigger plus but that is the part we don't like to say out loud.

Anonymous said...

8:09-The blog post said nothing about illegal or uncontrolled immigration. He said “increasing immigration.” Increasing immigration can be done in a manner that could be both legal and controlled. That your brain went to illegal/uncontrolled when reading it says much about your biased than any that may be in the original blog post.

Jim said...

Oh, heck, it's been said before by more knowledgeable people, and I'll repeat it here: Increase the SS wage tax by 1% for both employers and individuals, tax wages over $400,000 (indexed for inflation), and be done with it. Problem solved.

Drew C said...

Megan is objectively wrong about SSA funding problems. There are popular funding policies that would not be impossible to pass with Democrats controlling Congress and the presidency. Wishcasting about increased birthrates is not a pragmatic or easier solution. There is nowhere in the developed world where birthrates are not decreasing...so basically shes saying there is no fix for SSA funding problem. Megan is smarter than this (despite being a conservative).