Just some thoughts for those who prefer to stick their heads in the sand instead of facing reality.

1. When originally enacted, "Social Security" was meant to *supplement* a workers retirement, not provide for it entirely. This idea has been completely replaced with "the government owes me my retirement benefits".

2. When originally enacted, there were 12 workers for every retiree. Now there are 3-4 workers for every retiree. To compensate the government simply has raised taxes. Benefits have increased and been added. Never has any benefit been reduced or removed. Also, when originally enacted the average retiree drew benefits for about 10 years. Now that number can reach 15, 20 or even more. With longer lifespans comes increased medical costs. It is common now to have two generations of the same family drawing benefits. How long will it be before there are three generations of the same family drawing benefits?

3. No one makes "contributions" to Social Security. It is a tax, levied on every worker, whether they intend to use the benefits, or even need to, or not. The insanity of calling this a "contribution" is mind boggling.

4. There never has been, is not, and never will be, a "trust fund" set aside for Social Security. This was a phrase created in the middle of some stupid election cycle to inflame ignorant people's passion and make it sound like they had a bank account with "x" number of dollars in it. The truth is virtually every retiree gets far more out of the system than she/he ever "contributed". As someone pointed out above, you die too soon and the government says tough luck. This is one of the incredible inequities of the system. However, the vast majority of retirees outlives their "contributions", and I don't see anyone complaining about getting far more than what they put in.

5. If nothing is done this system will crash and burn within a decade or just a little longer. In the next 10 years the number of retirees will exceed the number of workers. The only way to operate with the current system is to increase the tax rate exponentially, significantly raise the minimum retirement age, or drastically reduce the benefit package. Pick your poison.

I know most of the posters here would vote to just stick the younger generation with a 50-60% tax rate to fund the baby boomer retirement party. The same people who decry the military budget won't give a flip about screwing their kids and grandkids to make up their precious "Social Security". But I happen to be one of the folks that honestly believes I will not see a friggin' penny of the money that I have been gouged for the past 20 years. It is gone, and I will not get one single benefit. None, nada, zip, bupkus. The system is broke, and I cannot envision screwing the next generation just to make a grossly unfair system even more unfair.

I would welcome the opportunity to opt out of this financial and moral mess and manage my own future. I have no constitutional right to bankrupt a younger generation to pay for my responsibility to support my parents and grandparents and to plan for my own future.

Responsibility for one's own family and future. What a concept. Why can't we give that option a try??

Freightdawg