AI Threatens To Ruin Social Security

Many people know that Social Security will be depleted by 2035 or 2033, depending on who does the math. People don’t realize that if the current Administration is in power until 2028 and the Republicans stay in power for  an extra eight more years, the odds of anything being done about it are low. Nothing has been said or done by the President to indicate there is a plan to put laws in place to change the current Social Security situation.

According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, “Social Security’s Old-Age & Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund would be depleted by 2033, at which point benefits would be reduced by 21 percent.” If combined with the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund, the time frame would last until 2035 and benefits would drop 17% that year. Peterson also points out that Social Security is the largest item in the federal budget and, therefore, a huge contributor to the national debt. The debt debate in the Congress has become more heated this year. Social Security cuts are not off the table.

The shortfall started in 2009. This happened because, in 1964, four workers paid money into Social Security for every recipient. The ratio dropped to 2.4 last year. In 2050, the figure will drop to 2 to 1. According to research by the Weldon Cooper Center, the median age of Americans was 38.78 in 2020. It will rise to 40.01 by 2030 and about 43 by 2050. AI could change that math entirely. There is growing evidence that AI could extend the human lifespan. Some models of the effects of AI show more and more people will live into their 100s. That means the drain on Social Security and, based on improvements in AI, that could begin soon.

None of the potential solutions are popular. One is to raise the age at which people can begin to take Social Security payments to as high as 70. Another is to increase the amount of Social Security payments taken out of paychecks starting now. The most controversial is that people who make over $100,000 in annual income when they retire get no Social Security payments, although they may have paid into the fund for decades. The final one of these is likely to be challenged in the courts.

The group most affected by the cuts is impoverished Americans, many of whom rely on Social Security as their primary source of income. AI can’t help solve that problem.