[big gray tabby]

I'm sure your private account would be treated like your 401K and you couldn't touch it without tax consequences until retirement. And I'm sure there would be mandated withdrawals also.

You know, it occurs to me that if folks here, one of the nation's most conservative, self-reliant collections of news junkies, can't be depended on to consider extending the retirement age one freaking year, then Social Security reform is doomed.

If you can't do manual labor at 68, go work at Wal-Mart for a year or two. It won't kill you. Or sit on your butt on your own savings.

For the life of me I can't figure out why my generation is going to be the only one to make any sacrifice at all. You decrepit old codgers are going to knock down any reform that might call for you to give up anything. My generation most likely won't even get our money back and you greedy old farts won't chip in a dime. Shame on you.

[rwfromkansas]

I am 21, and by the time I retire, the retirement age will probably be 75-80 or something. Hell, I may die before being able to retire.

[CSM]

Is the retirement age strictly defined by the SS benefit eligibility age? Would my 401K not be accessible until I reach the arbitrary age set by the gov't?

I know, I should know the answers to these questions, but I don't.....If the two are tied, then I definitely need to reconsider my investment strategy!

[yellowdoghunter]

You are right. I am 32 and am totally against them raising the retirement age. They have already raised it. Have some compassion for those who do hard, manual labor...I am assuming you do not.

The rest of the options I am willing to listen to and see where they lead us.

[self_evident]

You know, it occurs to me that if folks here, one of the nation's most conservative, self-reliant collections of news junkies, can't be depended on to consider extending the retirement age one freaking year, then Social Security reform is doomed.

It's not even the retirement age. It's the age they go on the govt. dole. Anyone can retire anytime they want. I've also notice a great enthusiasm for private accounts... private accounts funded with someone else's money that is.

[LibertarianInExile]

Bump to every single thing you said.

Note that the best solution to being forced to chip in for this is just to leave. You can work outside the U.S. and you don't contribute to the U.S. tax base (at least for the first 70K of income) and you don't pay into Social Security. That means you don't collect much, later, but what Gen X or Millenial Gen member thinks they'll collect anything, anyway?

[riri]

You decrepit old codgers are going to knock down any reform that might call for you to give up anything. My generation most likely won't even get our money back and you greedy old farts won't chip in a dime. Shame on you.

Thank You.

[johnb838]

F U

[jla]

You know, it occurs to me that if folks here, one of the nation's most conservative, self-reliant collections of news junkies, can't be depended on to consider extending the retirement age one freaking year, then Social Security reform is doomed... If you can't do manual labor at 68, go work at Wal-Mart for a year or two. It won't kill you. Or sit on your butt on your own savings.

You miss the point. It isn't for you or Hagel or anyone for that matter to determine how long one will work. It is solely up to the individual. And the individual did not do one damn thing to put Social Security in the mess we now find it. That was done by politicians.
I am tired, no I have HAD IT with people telling me I have to continually sacrifice for the good of the majority when I did nothing to contribute to SS's instability.
Why did our Founding Fathers come here anyway? To start up a bold, new Republic, only to see it, and our Constitution, centuries later rendered ineffectual and void of it's original, and once great, ideals?

[jla]

Social Security Reform in the 109th Congress - via Rep. Paul Ryan's website