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Social security is just a mandatory insurance plan. It forces us collectively to plan for our retirement. That the moneys have been squandered by out public servants is another big issue (perhaps a criminal breach of a fiduciary relationship). But, the program itself does not destroy capital. We have the balance of our paychecks, and so far it seems that very little of that tends to be invested or saved; would the elimination of social security miraculously change that kind of behavior?

You do not understand the way of Social Security actually works. The money you pay into the the system is not saved waiting for you to someday withdraw it. The money deducted from your paycheck goes to pay current retirees Social Security check. There is some money left over so the "Trust Fund" is currently growing, but it will soon start to shrink to nothing. If nothing is done, in the next 10 years, the "Trust Fund" will have zero dollars in it and the government will have three options, 1) cut benefits, 2) increase the payroll tax or 3) print money, none of which are in any way desirable. For many younger workers the money we are paying into Social Security is not being saved it is being squandered. The Greatest Generation was truly great and set this country on a solid footing, but they got suckered by the fraud that is Social Security and their children and grandchildren are the ones left to pay the bill.

You do not understand the way of Social Security actually works.

I understand how it currently works. The Social Security fund has been managed (or mismanaged) like this from inception. That aspect of it should be fixed; but, don't toss the baby out with the bath water. Lets talk about segragating the funds from the general ledger, and once and for all taking a one time charge to ensure that the program it is adequately funded. If we get this going correctly we will never have to waste time or tax dollars on it again. If you kill it, it will probably come back and bite an even bigger chunk out of your wallet.

Social Security benefits are crap. Keep screwing with it and some cleaver fellow may decide that he should be entitled to much much more. There is a reason for this program's existence, and it wasn't altruism.