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"They are busy with their own lives, and they rarely speak to their parents about their finances to learn how they depend on these programs," Rother told me. "They don't think about these things until they're 64. But they ought to, or these benefits could disappear."

When my grandmother (now deceased) would bring up her SS check (her memory was failing), I told her to think about it in terms of my paying for about half to a third of her check. She was stunned to hear that it was just a legalized Ponzi scheme.

I couched it in terms of money that I could use for my retirement savings being stolen to pay for her retirement because the government spent all her SS payments instead of investing them properly.

I also told her that I'd rather give her the money directly because none would be wasted on bureaucracy before it got to her.

According to several polls and studies, says AARP's policy director John Rother, many adult Americans younger than 50 have little regard for the federal government...

Gee, I wonder why we do?

My mom turns 79 next week. She lives on the survivors benefit from my dad's Navy retirement, social security and investment income that my dad set aside before he passed on. She was extolling the virtues of the social security checks and medicare. I was quietly bristling as I know exactly how that money is supplied. My taxes far exceed what is disbursed to my mother each month.