You forget, that you baby boomers who paid all your life paid MUCH LOWER rates. Today tax rates are high, and they will get higher. There's a big difference there. If you want proof baby boomers didn't plan for retirement, only 1/4th of people over the age of 50 have savings of 250k+, 1/3rd have nothing, the rest have a median of around 10k or so i think. That sounds like a lot of planning if you ask me.
Make no mistake, if something isn't done to solve this problem quickly there will be a massive young vs old crisis in our society. Young people just aren't going to tolerate tax rates in the 60's and 70's to bankroll people just sitting around for 30 or 40 years.
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That is a lie. The rate in 2003 (the last year cired on the SSI site) was less than 2% higher than it was in 1973. The maximums have gone up but they have certainly not kept pace with the increase in salaries. In 1973 one could own a home, two cars, raise kids and take vacations on $25k per year...try that today.