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Is the US running out of Social Security?

And how does it even work?

Kimberly Mas
Kimberly Mas is a senior producer at Vox video focused on science explainers.

There’s no denying that Americans rely heavily on Social Security benefits. Estimates from the Social Security Administration found that 97 percent of adults over the age of 60 are either collecting or will start collecting Social Security. As of February 2023, about one in every five residents in the US collected benefits from these funds. For such a widely used program, it’s a bit surprising that people in the US know so little about how it works.

To be fair, most of the news around this program over the past decade has been about how it’s doomed in one way or another. Millennials and younger people may see the money being taxed from their paychecks and believe they’ll probably never see it again, but is the program really destined to fail? And what do we stand to lose if it does? Check out the video above to get the most basic facts about Social Security in the United States and what to expect in the coming years.

You can find this video and more on our YouTube channel.

From doing your taxes for free to filing your first return, Vox has you covered: https://www.vox.com/even-better-guide-to-tax-season

This video is presented by Metro by T-Mobile. Metro has no editorial influence on our videos, but their support makes videos like these possible.

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