I don't believe this is true. My folks paid social security taxes all their life. Had that money been invested, they would be earning a lot more on it than they are getting. My wife's mom would be destitute without it.
I really think all the talk on this thread ignores a real and serious point: Substantial portions of two generations of Americans planned their retirement based on having Social Security. Yes, it was a bad program and yes the demographics of the baby bust give it the effect of a ponzi scheme. But it's a fact that folks have planned their lives around. So cut 'em a little slack.
There's no easy way out of this one that doesn't hurt folks. The boomers are going to get a lot less in real dollars than they have planned for and they are going to have to work for many years longer than any previous generation.. And, the X'ers and Y'ers are going to have to pay some of it--they will end up taking care of their parents thru social security or privately.
It's a lousy fix we are in as a society and we owe it all to our friendly neighborhood socialists and their fawning media lap dogs who refused to tell the truth about social security for 70 years (none of this is new or surprising to folks who have followed it for a while). W is trying to undo seventy years of expectations built by a program that would have worked (albeit badly from a rate of return viewpoint) had the birth control pill and abortion not come along. It isn't going to be fixed by throwing my wife's mom on the street--the votes aren't there.
"And, the X'ers and Y'ers are going to have to pay some of it--they will end up taking care of their parents thru social security or privately."
We Gen X'ers are getting screwed in many ways the older generation did not. We pay higher taxes, have to compete for employment with an immigrant pool willing to take traditionally well paying jobs at less than livable wage salaries, and are being told it is our duty to pay for this because of a false expectation.
SS was never meant to be a retirement plan. Don't you think that it is a problem when many many social security recipients get more per month in benefits than many working people? Its a complete farse and scheme that has been perpretrated against people and is causing more havoc as people live longer and longer.
No one wants to throw anyone in street. That is typical liberal hyperbole. The fact that is those demanding the most paid in the least. They paid in less in both real dollars as well as a percentage of their income.
Why is it that someone should automatically be able collect at 62 y/o? There is plenty of employment these people can take without having to entirely rely on the system and cry and demand more from us younger people just trying to have our life the way they had theirs.