SSI is named as, managed as, and treated as an insurance program, not a pension or savings program. Like virtually all other insurance systems that have ever existed, or exist today, it’s managed as a pay as you go system. Currently there is a future point around 20 years down the line where if the Congress doesn’t raise the cap or make a few other small but manageable changes there could be a revenue shortfall. I expect that some day the GOP will lose power again, the grown ups will be in charge, and this will be managed.
Because it is a pay as you go system, the most foolish and dangerous thing you could do would be to treat it like a savings program. That confused and ignorant model mismatch ensures problems, as the CBO projections of the financial impact of Paul Ryan’s completely unhinged SS privatization scheme illustrated. Given that SSI is what it it, it can be managed for what it is effectively once the current gaggle of incompetents leave the Congress, and if managed by responsible people will run fine. Your fear mongering doesn’t really sway me since it’s based on very deep and fundamental misunderstandings of what you’re talking about.
