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The "duped" part is: Surprise! SS is unsustainable because it's basically run like a chain letter. Surprise! You'd have been better off stuffing 10% of your income (average income of $35K a year) under your mattress. You'd have about $175,000 right now. As it stands, you can draw about $12,000 a year when you turn 65. If you live to the average age of 75, you'll have received only $120,000. It's a rip off, but you were forced to participate.

Hardly a surprise. Recently, I found a Reader's Digest from October of 1967. It had an article on how SS really worked and what the structural problems were. The seniors who are "surprised" about this are the same one's who are "surprised" to find out that cigarettes cause cancer.

I'm shocked at how few people, of all ages, know the real skinny on SS. Test it for yourself. Ask someone that isn't into politics like we are and see what they say. Most of them think that their money is being put away for them until they retire. They've no idea that the money they pay is immediately used to pay retirees. That little detail is crucial to the problem. I don't understand why it isn't being used to bolster the idea of private accounts.