[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Rose and Milton Friedman, to cite one source, in their masterful work, Free to Choose published in 1972 make clear that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme enforced by the government. About 10 years ago W pointed out that the Social Security Trust fund was underfunded by over a trillion dollars. The alternatives are

A) Change benefit promises to match reality
B) Subsidize Social Security from "the general fund", i.e., other taxes
C) Some of both A & B
D) Await collapse

The electorate has overwhelmingly and repeatedly chosen D.

[mountainlion]

How should elderly be taken care of?

The family and Churches traditionally took care of the elderly but the new world order of Global Elite decided to destroy the family and the Churches. There were also “Poor Farms” where those that could work a little worked the land and took care that could not take care of themselves. Us Baby boomers took care of our parents with social security and now we have been robbed by the crooks in government and our our following generation are too selfish to do anything to help others out.

[Notary Sojac]

D) Await collapse

The electorate has overwhelmingly and repeatedly chosen D.

Exactly.

A more articulate Freeper than I put it very well a few weeks ago:

"Everyone should enjoy the government checks while they got ‘em. You won’t get ‘em forever. When they stop, nobody will care whether you “worked for it” or whether you are “entitled” or whether “someone else” should have been cut first."

[Uncle Sham]

"The electorate has overwhelmingly and repeatedly chosen D."

There is another choice. End it entirely through a phase-out that ask something of everyone and gives something back to everyone.

Old people in this country were lied to by the media and their government their entire lives. Everything concerning those programs that imprisoned them were a fraud dressed as icing on the cake by design. It is only now that many have awakened to the truth that our very own government is, has been, and will be our biggest obstacle to regaining the liberty and freedom we were given by our nations founding fathers. Unfortunately for many, their misplaced trust in what their government and media have preached to them over and over has been abused.

I am approaching retirement age. I want social security abolished entirely. It is nothing more than government ownership of the elderly. The way to do this is simple. It must be done over a long enough period of time to be enacted in such a way that everybody wins something and gives something up in return.

1. Everyone currently on social security who actually paid into the system remains on the system until they die. Their cost of living increases would be adjusted as to amount and how often they occur. This means that over a four year time span, those who should never have been on the system in the first place, the real freeloaders, can receive a twenty-five percent reduction in benefits per year until they no longer receive anything and are off of the system.

2. Offer a one-time buyout to anyone within ten years of retirement such that they would be removed from the plan entirely and would never receive benefits. Their paychecks also would now be totally untouched by social security taxation making them an experienced, dependable, less expensive group of employees for anyone who hires them. This step alone would remove a considerable amount of future expense from the program making it a bit easier to manage as it is eliminated over time. Anyone who decides not to take the buyout will have to live with whatever adjustment are made to the plan in order to manage its cost. Whatever you borrow to fund this "buyout" will be easier to pay off and far less over time than having to pay the benefits they replace.

3. Those in the ten to twenty year range can be offered a smaller buyout or be stuck with whatever they end up with as the plan changes to contain cost.

4. Anyone over twenty years from retirement would be ineligible to receive benefits but their paychecks would still incur social security taxes until such a time as those taxes are no longer needed to fund paying recipients. Their net pay would rise as the number of those receiving social security die off. In a forty year time span, the program can be totally gone. This means that in twenty years time, you can get rid of social security and allow those who won't get it enough time to start saving for a personal retirement plan that THEY own, not the government.

Once this has been done, the real problem (the government itself, not the "old" people) will have been dealt with and permanently removed from the scene of the crime.