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U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

reuters.com

41–50 of 96 posts

Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#41
post #11
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahem. Social security is not self-funded, it's funded by current payroll tax receipts, plus a 2.6 trillion trust fund, plus about 5 trillion in debt owed to it by the rest of the government.

Right, SS is already in a risky position, most millenials question if it'll even be standing when it comes to their turn (especially if population drops since they're having less children who will pay in), what they're suggesting would make it worse.

Yeah, except that’s not true at all. SS is not in a risky position. The worst that can happen to it is current SS receipts do not pay out enough money for the current SS recipients to live a reasonable quality of life. SS is a transfer of funds from current earners to current retirees.

People trying to scare people about SS talk about the trust fund depleting, but the trust fund is simply a bonus that was created to account for the fact that when the baby boomers started retiring, their numbers would be much greater than the numbers of working people to maintain a healthy SS system. So they set aside some additional money so the large number of baby boomers, who in their prime had to pay for a relatively smaller number of retirees, were paying some money towards their own retirement and so wouldn’t place too much of a burden when they retired.

Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#42
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we can afford a $1.5 trillion injection into the markets, then we can afford moving the SS retirement age to 60 where the most vulnerable exist.

The $1.5 trillion injection doesn't actually cost any money. The Fed is making short-term fully-collateralized loans.

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Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#43
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banks have assets to offer as collateral for those loans. What assets do entitlement programs have to offer as collateral?

How about a $2,790,000,000,000 trust fund? Is that asset enough? I think a big problem with this discussion isn't about public policy, it's that people don't understand how social security works.

These loans have to be paid back almost immediately. Unless the people receiving social security early pay it back, you haven’t solved anything.

Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#44
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social security is based on what you paid in, so the earlier you start withdrawing the lower your monthly check is. You couldn’t allow people to receive the full amount starting at 60 without bankrupting the program.

Ahem. Social security is not self-funded, it's funded by current payroll tax receipts, plus a 2.6 trillion trust fund, plus about 5 trillion in debt owed to it by the rest of the government.

It was my understanding that the $2.6 ($2.89 actually) trillion is the total asset balance. That includes everything “owed.”

Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#45
post #3
post #2

You know what else would help? Since the risk curve bends sharply upward at age 60, immediately allow anyone to start drawing full social security payments at age 60, without any sort of penalty. Those companies that value their older workers would now be in the position of making work-from-home a full-fledged option, because the bargaining power would shift to where it belongs - the worker.

That would both put a massive strain on the Social Security trust and not pressure employers at all, since they'd likely be happy to have the most expensive employees retire early.

Oh right because all of our pensions systems are based on people actually dying after 60, keep forgetting that.

Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#46

If COVID-19 digs in deep in the US then there is going to be a transformational change in how US citizens think about work, travel, entertainment, security, and the relationship between US citizens and their government. All of these aspects are intertwined: Work: More people will work more time from home and many firms will switch to virtually full time remote with limited physical gathering. This will decrease the c…

> Entertainment: Many of the sports that have been deferred or canceled will likely be replaced with other forms of entertainment that can be viewed on television or the Internet. Fewer people will go to live performances, both because they can't (cancelled by the government) and reluctant to after COVID clears. My guess is that you're overstating the long-term effect on this front. People like leaving the house; peo…

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Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#47

If COVID-19 digs in deep in the US then there is going to be a transformational change in how US citizens think about work, travel, entertainment, security, and the relationship between US citizens and their government. All of these aspects are intertwined: Work: More people will work more time from home and many firms will switch to virtually full time remote with limited physical gathering. This will decrease the c…

> Entertainment: Many of the sports that have been deferred or canceled will likely be replaced with other forms of entertainment that can be viewed on television or the Internet. Fewer people will go to live performances, both because they can't (cancelled by the government) and reluctant to after COVID clears. My guess is that you're overstating the long-term effect on this front. People like leaving the house; peo…

Not to mention, people can still go to low-density venues outside. I wonder if both neighborhood parks and county/state/national parks will experience higher rates of attendance.

Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#48
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, SS is already in a risky position, most millenials question if it'll even be standing when it comes to their turn (especially if population drops since they're having less children who will pay in), what they're suggesting would make it worse.

Yeah, except that’s not true at all. SS is not in a risky position. The worst that can happen to it is current SS receipts do not pay out enough money for the current SS recipients to live a reasonable quality of life. SS is a transfer of funds from current earners to current retirees. People trying to scare people about SS talk about the trust fund depleting, but the trust fund is simply a bonus that was created to…

Thanks for injecting some sanity into this. Benefits drop to about 75% when the trust fund is exhausted around 2026, and we'd simply need to take the salary cap off Social Security taxes and possible transfer some monies from the general fund.

It's an entirely solvable political problem.

Re: U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus

#50

If COVID-19 digs in deep in the US then there is going to be a transformational change in how US citizens think about work, travel, entertainment, security, and the relationship between US citizens and their government. All of these aspects are intertwined: Work: More people will work more time from home and many firms will switch to virtually full time remote with limited physical gathering. This will decrease the c…

I don't see how it will make long lasting changes other than your first point about WFH and virtual meetings being even more normalized.

Travel and entertainment, doing these in-person is interwoven in our DNA. These industries (lol at how Trump says this word) are gonna take a huge hit, but will of course rebound.

I do think people will be more hygenic for many years to come because of this.

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