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I won't get it. read the following. please star this question and ask others to respond social security to start cashing uncle sam's ious by stephen ohlemacher, associated press writer stephen ohlemacher, associated press writer – 1 hr 14 mins ago parkersburg, w.va. – the retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the ohio river: $2.5 trillion in ious from the federal government, payable to the social security administration. it's time to start cashing them in. for more than two decades, social security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year. not anymore. this year, for the first time since the 1980s, when congress last overhauled social security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more. sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from social security rather than foreign creditors. in return, the treasury department issued a stack of ious — in the form of treasury bonds — which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from parkersburg's municipal offices. now the government will have to borrow even more money, much of it abroad, to start paying back the ious, and the timing couldn't be worse. the government is projected to post a record $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year, followed by trillion dollar deficits for years to come. social security's shortfall will not affect current benefits. as long as the ious last, benefits will keep flowing. but experts say it is a warning sign that the program's finances are deteriorating. social security is projected to drain its trust funds by 2037 unless congress acts, and there's concern that the looming crisis will lead to reduced benefits. "this is not just a wake-up call, this is it. we're here," said mary johnson, a policy analyst with the senior citizens league, an advocacy group. "we are not going to be able to put it off any more." for more than two decades, regardless of which political party was in power, congress has been accused of raiding the social security trust funds to pay for other programs, masking the size of the budget deficit. remember al gore's "lockbox," the one he was going to use to protect social security? the former vice president talked about it so much during the 2000 presidential campaign that he was parodied on "saturday night live." gore lost the election and never got his lockbox. but to illustrate the government's commitment to repaying social security, the treasury department has been issuing special bonds that earn interest for the retirement program. the bonds are unique because they are actually printed on paper, while other government bonds exist only in electronic form. they are stored in a three-ring binder, locked in the bottom drawer of a white metal filing cabinet in the parkersburg offices of bureau of public debt. the agency, which is part of the treasury department, opened offices in parkersburg in the 1950s as part of a plan to locate important government functions away from washington, d.c., in case of an attack during the cold war. one bond is worth a little more than $15.1 billion and another is valued at just under $10.7 billion. in all, the agency has about $2.5 trillion in bonds, all backed by the full faith and credit of the u.s. government. but don't bother trying to steal them; they're nonnegotiable, which means they are worthless on the open market. more than 52 million people receive old age or disability benefits from social security. the average benefit for retirees is a little under $1,200 a month. disabled workers get an average of $1,100 a month. social security is financed by payroll taxes — employers and employees must each pay a 6.2 percent tax on workers' earnings up to $106,800. retirees can start getting early, reduced benefits at age 62. they get full benefits if they wait until they turn 66. those born after 1960 will have to wait until they turn 67. social security's financial problems have been looming for years as the nation's 78 million baby boomers approached retirement age. the oldest are already there. as that huge group of people starts collecting benefits — and stops paying payroll taxes — social security's trust funds will shrink, running out of money by 2037, according to the latest projection from the trustees who oversee the program. the recession is making things worse, at least in the short term. tax receipts are down from the loss of more than 8 million jobs, and applications for early retirement benefits have spiked from older workers who were laid off and forced to retire. stephen c. goss, chief actuary for the social security administration, says the crisis has been years in the making. "if this helps get peop

The equivalent to Social Security in Canada is the Canada Pension Plan. Actuarial estimates indicate that by the time I retire in 20 years I will get 35-40 cents of every dollar I've contributed. The current generation of retirees get somewhere around $1.75 for each $1 they contributed over the years. That is why private savings plans like RRSP's in Canada and IRA's in the US are so important. This is a real challenge facing North Americans, our savings rates lag far behind other industrialized countries. Now is the time to act.