[ndt]

"Social Security has been considered the untouchable “third rail” of politics."

Assuming you're right (worst case scenario) wouldnt the real solution be privatization of SS. Then those who pay in get whats due them regardless of status.

[anglian]

A self-employed person pays 15.3% to the government for Social Security, Disability and Medicare taxes. Employees pay half the 15.3% and their employers pay the other half. Anyway you cut it, it is 15% out of every person’s income paid to the government, and then we taxpayers suffer the indignity of having that 15% subject to double taxation by having to include it in the computation of our taxable income.

Now don’t go wobbly before I explain how we can afford to do this. But first let’s look at what we are trying to accomplish. In an average 40-year working life a minimum wage earner stuck at $7.25 per hour for 40 years will accumulate a nest egg of $1.2 Million dollars just from the investment of that 15% and the earnings over the years that compounds like a snowball.

http://dickmcdonald.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html#613550557623169918