Sorry...I'm trying to move this discussion from the Hillary forum where it was off topic. What do you mean by a fix then? I think it goes back further than that. I think it "broke" when we decided to take Social Security surpluses and dump them into the general budget.
By a fix, I mean adjusting the system so that the SSA will end up with a an "endowment" that will eventually be self-supporting.
Why don't we fix the system by forcing gov employees to contribute to it? I have a hard time believing this is the best way to spend 7.5% of my income. If we could stop the raiding of the fund that would be a huge step.
They already do. Since the changeover to the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) in 1987 federal employees contribute to SS. More here http://www.opm.gov/retire/html/retirement/fers.html You are probably thinking of the old system, the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). Fed employees under CSRS paid into that system rather than SS.
Does this borrow from the Family Medical Leave Act* Thats FMLA for short! Where one is off and another can not take off but under it. The person can claim the doctors excuse. Not sure you would want the full 12 unpaid workweeks but it does help to get back to something for earnings...
What Americans often fail to see, is that spending a good deal of $ on government/state welfare measures, is money very well spend (ofcause depending on how you go about doing it)... It most surely work in Scandinavia, also more ultra right-winged Scandinavian politicians agree on this and they have no plans of changing the core of the Scandinavian welfare system.. If ppl (or their workplace) have to pay for their own health insurance, they often tend to cut corners and try to save as much $ they can, just as a private insurance company ofcause want to make a profit, so they try to keep down the cost on the expense of their clients, which is all a rather unhealthy way of keeping ppl in good health. Infact it often lead to ppl waiting too long to get the proper treatment, which then in the end lead to perhaps upto 10 to 20 times as costly treatment/surgery. In other words, private healthcare tend to lead to a huge waste of $ and most surely also for some ppl the loss of their ability to work, which then again lead to more government spending on welfare and (when some ppl have to turne to crime to survive) also to more spending on prisons/law inforcement and a huge waste of tax $ in court... You can ofcause always mock the Scandinavians for paying too much income tax, but the truth of the matter is that the paycheck for an average worker also is bigger in compare with the US and in the end it is the difference at the bottom line that matters, ppl also then dont have worry about paying for healthcare, or their education (at any level !), ther are just about no unemployment and financially the goverments are producing a comfortable balance of payments surplus and zero net foreign debts, unlike the US government. Infact, I guess the only reason you pay less income taxes in the US is because your not paying the tax needed to cover the actual government spending and not because the government has been doing well at cutting expenses (as written, then cutting welfare expenses usually just lead to even more spending on crime and law inforcement). .