I know. It’s already been floated. The gov takes your retirement and they promise you x in return.
All it will take is enough yes votes by the general population.
They are almost at that point and they know it. That’s why they need just a few more illegals to vote.
Why would the general population have to vote? We didn't vote on initiatives that use money paid into Social Security for other things. I'd think, if we're lucky, the HOR and US Senate could pass it. If we're not lucky, the Federal Reserve could decree it.
A lot of people's retirement savings plans have been messed up by the 0% interest rates. I could envision a scheme where there would be federal annuities for savings. Retirement monies would go into fed-insured annuities and pay out a certain percentage each year, but the gov instead of an insurance company keeps the balance when one dies. The only way to avoid that would be to not have any of those federally sanctioned retirement plans.
If that happened, I believe the general population, with less knowledge about perconal finance and economics than HS graduates had in the '60s, would accept it as a good deal.
It would be long-term dumb and destroy all the good plans such as the Roth IRA do to encourage people to save for retirement.