The math isn’t so hard

Gary Crooks’ column “Social insecurity is rising” (Feb. 20) raises the issue of long-term solutions for Social Security funding. He proposes raising the SS payroll tax ceiling. Others say raise the retirement age. Such solutions are unnecessary if we examine SS inputs versus outputs on an individual basis and get realistic.

Your annual SS statement reports your account’s current cash value in the middle of page 3. If you have a long enough earnings history, it’s simple math to project that value at your retirement age.

Your currently projected monthly SS payment is at the top of page 2. Dividing your projected cash value at retirement by that payment gives the number of months to pay out everything you paid in. Divide that by 12 for the number of years. That’s within 12 to 15 years for almost everyone. The Concord Coalition verifies that.

Everyone deserves to get back what they paid in, regardless of income. But those retirees who have sufficient income from other sources don’t deserve a penny extra of younger generations’ money. Do you get it?

The truly fair and logical way to solve SS solvency is to “means test” recipients on this basis. So go figure.

Bob Strong

Spokane