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The blame should be placed squarely on the shoulders of Congress/Government. They have betrayed the American people, demanding mandatory compliance and then squandering the proceeds.

While I agree that politicians squandered the proceeds from SS, the blame for the program should be placed squarely on the voters during the Depression who demanded such a program from their representatives.

Politicians do what the voters demand or they don't get reelected. It goes directly to the old truism that democracies last only as long as it takes the voters to learn they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. Roosevelt's New Deal taught Americans that lesson.

I paid into SS from the age of 11, when I lied about my age to get a job delivering newspapers. At retirement I'd been contributing for 54 years. I'd be happy just to receive back the original amount I contributed over that time -- adjusted for inflation! Until then I'll thankfully cash my monthly SS check which I use mostly to help my kids. For the next year or so it'll be helping to pay for my grandson's orthodontistry.

If any of you want to reform this freaking ponzi scheme, there is one way to do it.

A National Referendum Mandating that demand that all members of Congress shall receive the exact same retirement as any other citizen that has paid into SSI.

No special retirement fund, no special treatment.

Then watch the SOB reform the system!

The problem is, is that SS is mandatory. I have no choice, in this free society. I also think that SS was not demanded by the population at large, but was a remedy imposed by the government (i.e. Roosevelt, et.al.) to buy votes. Never believe anything that the government will tell you.

"It goes directly to the old truism that democracies last only as long as it takes the voters to learn they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. Roosevelt's New Deal taught Americans that lesson."

This is very correct. We are dealing with a Ponzoi scheme, not a solution. Get votes today, and we will be dead and gone when the mud hits the fan.

I am not greedy, however, if I am forced to pay into such a system, It should be expected that there will be a benefit better than low end poverty.

The government is still guilty of fraud in any scenario, if the same standards were imposed upon them that apply to the private sector.

Blessings, Bobo