[Henry Hnyellar]

Like it or not, it is a very popular program. Yes, it's popular because people are either ignorant or stupid. Show them the difference in what they will get from SS and what they would get if they put 6-7% of their income into an IRA for the same period of time. The popularity would plummet.

[BobL]

“Yes, it’s popular because people are either ignorant or stupid. Show them the difference in what they will get from SS and what they would get if they put 6-7% of their income into an IRA for the same period of time. The popularity would plummet.”

True...but it is on fumes now, paying out money based on incoming revenue. The time to reform it should have been 30 years ago, for the short time it was actually solvent, after the huge tax increases and increase in the retirement age that Reagan signed into law.

But that didn’t happen and now the program will likely never be solvent again, but rather will slowly morph into just another welfare program...and untouchable at that.

[kabar]

Yes, it's popular because people are either ignorant or stupid. Show them the difference in what they will get from SS and what they would get if they put 6-7% of their income into an IRA for the same period of time. The popularity would plummet.

For one third of today's retirees, SS is the only retirement income they have. For two-thirds, it comprises more than 50% of their retirement income.

A survey released by Bankrate.com, a financial research firm, shows 26 percent of those who are age 50 to 64 have saved nothing for retirement.

When you look at the millennials, especially those saddled with huge student debt, it is getting harder to save money for retirement. And there is the growing wealth gap. We are seeing the destruction of the middle class and the creation of a growing permanent underclass. We are taking on the profile of a Third World country.

The Great Recession, fueled by the crises in the housing and financial markets, was universally hard on the net worth of American families. But even as the economic recovery has begun to mend asset prices, not all households have benefited alike, and wealth inequality has widened along racial and ethnic lines.

The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Likewise, the wealth of white households is now more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households, compared with nine times the wealth in 2010.