[randita]

This is the whole ‘lock box’ thing. Americans who were paying in for year after year assumed the money was going into a ‘trust fund’ to be there for the day when they stopped putting in and started taking out. Now they find out their never was a ‘trust fund’. The money was being spent every penny of it, just as fast it came in.

True. Even if it was kept in a "lock box", there still wouldn't have been enough money to pay retirees the kinds of benefits they have received and continue to receive. It was doomed to fail from the start and it is starting to fail at warp speed as a result of this recession.

[jwparkerjr]

re: wouldn’t have been enough money to pay retirees the kinds of benefits they have received and continue to receive

My understanding is that if they had kept to the original plan they would be able to handle those who had paid into the system and then retired. They backed out on several increases in the contributions over the years because there was so much money there they couldn’t believe they would ever need it.

And if they had kept it for its original purpose. But instead they have loaded all sorts of people to the rolls who are not retired, many of whom never paid a penny into it.

Like everything government does, it looks good on paper but putting it into practice falls prey to the greed of our elected officials and those entrusted with running the programs.

The only answer I see is for the entire system to collapse on itself and let the producers rebuild it. It’s a house of cards and you certainly can’t fix one of those by moving a few cards here and there. And especially not by piling more and more cards!