[Zhang Fei]

Why not raise the eligibility age to 90? That would solve our fiscal problem for a long time. SS is quite a system now. You can contribute to the system for 50 years and not collect a dime except a small burial allowance.

Tell me about it. Having put in a few hundred grand myself, I'd hate to lose that money. Ideally, we would phase it out by gradually raising eligibility requirements. At the same time, a ponzi scheme like this has to end eventually. Getting more than you contributed only works if more and more suckers join the tax rolls. Current birth rates are just at replacement levels, so increasing numbers of suckers aren't signing up. And getting low-skilled immigrants into the country only adds to rather than subtracts from the tax burden.

[kabar]

SS is an unsustainable system as currently structured. In 1950, there were 16 workers paying Social Security taxes for every retired person receiving benefits. Today there are 3.3. By 2030, there will be only 2. By 2030, there will be 70 million Americans of retirement age--twice as many as today.

FYI: Your SS contributions don't belong to you. The Supreme Court ruled in Flemming v. Nestor that there is no legal right to Social Security benefits. Source: Flemming V. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 610�11 (1960)