[FredZarguna]

Can’t be done.

The sooner we admit that, the better

We will never admit it. Listen to what I'm saying and write it down: NO politician of either party or any future party will deny so much as $1 in entitlement benefits to any except the very wealthiest constituent. NO one.

All that is going to happen is that we will monetize that debt away, "slowly" at first, and faster and faster as we roll down the crumbling pyramid. The resulting inflation will be a crushing tax on everyone and will grind the poor into dust faster than anyone else.

But politicians will be able to pretend they've "kept their promise to the American people."

The merciless mathematics of Social Security have been obvious since the beginning.

[DuncanWaring]

Rudyard Kipling wrote it down a century ago:

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."