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Entrepreneurship Could Fix Social Security Problem · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: Social Security has a math problem. Today, more money is
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  Speaker 1: going out in benefits than is coming in through payroll taxes.
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  Speaker 1: The difference is covered by the program's trust fund, but
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  Speaker 1: according to the twenty twenty six Trustees report, that fund
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  Speaker 1: is now expected to run dry in late twenty thirty two.
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  Speaker 1: After that, payroll taxes would still cover about seventy eight
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  Speaker 1: percent of promised benefits, but unless Congress acts current law says,
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  Speaker 1: benefits would have to be cut by roughly twenty two percent.
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  Speaker 1: There are plenty of ideas floating around Washington. Raised taxes,
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  Speaker 1: trim benefits, increase the retirement age. Hoppy Kercheville recently laid
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  Speaker 1: out a piece outlining several of those options. Read it
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  Speaker 1: now at the website. But after watching Washington's struggle to
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  Speaker 1: solve just about every major challenge over the past several decades,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps it's worth asking a different question. What if part
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  Speaker 1: of the solution isn't in Washington at all. Consider what's
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  Speaker 1: happening among older Americans. According to the Wall Street Journal,
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  Speaker 1: the number of entrepreneurs between the ages of fifty five
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  Speaker 1: and sixty four who incorporated new businesses has jumped twenty
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  Speaker 1: two percent over the past decade. One retiree operates a
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  Speaker 1: small nutrition business that brings in about eight hundred dollars
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  Speaker 1: a month, enough to cover the family's budget without touching savings.
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  Speaker 1: Another invested a small portion of his retirement nest egg
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  Speaker 1: into an indoor golf simulator business. His goal isnt to
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  Speaker 1: build the next fortune five hundred company. It's to earn
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  Speaker 1: about ten thousand dollars a month doing something he enjoys.
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  Speaker 1: Different stories, same lesson. Retirement doesn't have to mean the
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  Speaker 1: end of productive work. It can be the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: a second career. Social Security was never designed to be
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  Speaker 1: someone's entire retirement plan, yet for too many Americans, that's
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  Speaker 1: exactly what it's become. One could argue, and any basic
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  Speaker 1: retirement calculator will show you that if the government's twelve
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  Speaker 1: point four percent payroll tax had simply been invested over
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  Speaker 1: the decades in a low cost s and P index fund,
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  Speaker 1: many retirees would likely be financially independent today. But that
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  Speaker 1: ship has sailed, So let's focus on what we can
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  Speaker 1: do right now. If retirees want to start a business,
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  Speaker 1: why not make it easier? Why not reduce the Social
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  Speaker 1: Security self employment tax burden for retirees? Who continue working,
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  Speaker 1: Let them keep more of what they earn while still
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  Speaker 1: contributing to the economy. Saving social security should absolutely remain
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  Speaker 1: a national priority, but encouraging more Americans to generate income,
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  Speaker 1: create wealth, and build businesses later in life ought to
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  Speaker 1: be part of the conversation too, because the more Americans
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  Speaker 1: stand on their own two feet, the less pressure there
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  Speaker 1: is on a retirement system that was never meant to
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  Speaker 1: carry the entire load by itself.