It went away because people bought into the concept of Uncle Sugar taking care of them in their old age. Too bad Uncle Sugar is a thief with no sense of accountability. There are going to be a lot of unhappy baby boomers not all that terribly far into the future. I, for one am not going to be having much sympathy for their attempts to pick my pockets.
Quick fix: change the tax laws so that a percentage of taxes paid by children go directly to their retirement-age parents.
A better idea would be to change the tax laws so that every dime you pay goes to private accounts. Those without retirement money will either have to figure out some way of making some, or go on welfare, which is basically what SS really is.
Social security, IRA's, pensions -- all of them depend on the assumption that there will be a next generation who will pay the taxes and be employed in the businesses that will pay the dividends and capital gains to keep it all afloat. Without a viable next generation, it doesn't matter how you've invested your money.
The middle class needs an incentive to reproduce, and the underclass needs a disincentive. We currently have it backwards