I know there are many freepers who have paid into the system for years, and who recognize how utterly hopeless the financial mess is -- and yet they still say "I expect to get what I have coming to me!!"
I see massive default and I see a world war of monumental proportions. What I do NOT see is a bunch of freepers (or anybody) receiving social security checks 15 years from now. It just ain't happening. The math says "No".
That doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
Done properly, it may be possible to gracefully phase it out.
Start raising the retirement age, no other changes for people over 60-or-so, and gradually phase it out over about 40 years.
The new rule would be for every year you are under 60 years old now, your FICA tax is reduced by 2.5%, and your expected Social Security payout is reduced by 2.5%. Deficiences financed by redeeming the Trust Fund bonds (ha! I kill myself!)
I'm not sure how well that plan would work out with the actual demographics, but it might work.
we’ll probably all be killed robbing banks anyway....