Stupid SS bridge proposal

[dude]

This woman, Alicia Munnell, has never seen a government program she didn't like. I mean, this sounds like one of the stupidest, most paternalistic things I've heard in a long time. Forcing people to wait until 70 to collect their SS benefits? Just the other day, she had a piece about getting people to loosen up and spend down their 401k's. Bizarre stuff.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-new-idea-mandatory-retirement-accounts-to-help-workers-delay-claiming-social-security-2018-02-28

[Sibley]

Without an opinion on this particular proposal, the average person has proven themselves to be woefully incapable of saving for retirement on their own. Instituting mandatory savings aside from traditional SS would help.

Of course, preventing the Fed govt from using the Social Security trust fund to cover deficits would be helpful too, but we've kinda missed that boat.

[rpr]

I don't think there is anything wrong in trying to think of solutions to help the Social Security funding issues. We need a discussion with all possible options on the table.

A lot of people rail against government programs but the reality is that for lots of poor seniors the major (maybe "only") source of income is from a mandatory government program -- social security. In addition, the major source of medical benefits for most seniors of all income groups is from another government two  programs -- medicare and medicaid. Yes all of these programs have issues but with discussion and compromise, these can be solved.