SS is not a time bomb because we have a rather convoluted accounting scheme for the government. Let me explain by analogy.
Essentially, imagine you have a kid. You start socking away money for your children's college, call this the "college trust fund", which has future obligations of $200k. You also have your "general fund", which pays for food, daily expenses, etc.
Now your kid says "daddy, I want an X-Box." You point out that you can't afford it, but to make her happy, you take money out of her college fund. But she makes you put IOU's into the college fund, and you declare the college fund has no problem. You keep doing this, until the college fund is full of mostly IOUs.
You also have a younger kid, but he's too young to talk or pay attention to the management of your finances.
Eventually, the younger kid gets old enough to talk, and he starts to wonder. "How can we pay for college for me and my sister?" He looks at the price of having a roof over his head + the cost of college, compares it to income, and gets scared. Something has to give, and he describes his big sister's college fund as a "time bomb" that will ruin the family finances.
But his sister says: "Hey, there is no problem with my college fund. It's covered - look, the account is full of IOUs from daddy. Stop being such a jerk, trying to prevent me from going to college."
Essentially, imagine you have a kid. You start socking away money for your children's college, call this the "college trust fund", which has future obligations of $200k. You also have your "general fund", which pays for food, daily expenses, etc.
Now your kid says "daddy, I want an X-Box." You point out that you can't afford it, but to make her happy, you take money out of her college fund. But she makes you put IOU's into the college fund, and you declare the college fund has no problem. You keep doing this, until the college fund is full of mostly IOUs.
You also have a younger kid, but he's too young to talk or pay attention to the management of your finances.
Eventually, the younger kid gets old enough to talk, and he starts to wonder. "How can we pay for college for me and my sister?" He looks at the price of having a roof over his head + the cost of college, compares it to income, and gets scared. Something has to give, and he describes his big sister's college fund as a "time bomb" that will ruin the family finances.
But his sister says: "Hey, there is no problem with my college fund. It's covered - look, the account is full of IOUs from daddy. Stop being such a jerk, trying to prevent me from going to college."