Pressures on the system
As baby boomers leave the workplace, the number of people who will be retiring will increase dramatically in the coming decades. Pair this with a continuing decline in birth rates and this leads to fewer people paying into the Social Security system and more people taking money out.
Even the Social Security Administration calls the financial condition of the system "problematic." According to the 2009 OASDI Trustees Report, the cost of Social Security will exceed tax revenues starting in 2016. The program's combined trust funds are projected to allow full payment of expected retirement, survivor and disability benefits until the funds become exhausted in 2037. At that time, annual tax income to the trust funds is projected to equal about 76 percent of program costs.
Source: www.socialsecurity.gov, 2010.
