The explanation behind this cartoon is that our Social Security works on a system where workers and employers make payments into the social security trust fund, and withdrawals are made to pay for retiree benefits. Individual workers or retirees don’t have their own “account” in social security. As long as the workforce is growing, and the trust fund earns some modest interest income, there should be enough money in the fund to pay for future retirees. With the baby boom generation, however, there is a bulge in population, and that bulge is approaching retirement age. There are fewer, younger workers coming up, so actuaries are predicting that the social security trust fund will start shrinking within 20 years or so, and “dry up” in 30-50 years, unless the program is changed.

As a baby boomer I can look forward to receiving my social security benefits from a trust fund that is still solvent. So I’m like the early investors in the cartoon. My adult children, however, who have started contributing to social security from their payroll deductions, may not have a fund from which to receive their benefits when they are ready to retire. They are the late investors.