Anyone who has paid into the system for 30 to 40 years has GIVEN that MONEY to the Government and in all likelihood would like SOMETHING in return.
Why would they lift a finger to cut themselves off from what they were forced to pay into for a lifetime?
If they gave every young person today a choice to opt out of having to have SS taxes deducted from their pay check and allow them to put it into a private account that THEY, the individual, controlled, in 30 to 40 years they would have 5 to 10 times the money to draw upon than SS could ever provide and deliver.
The PROBLEM if you haven't noticed is GOVERNMENT wants CONTROL.
Government will NEVER be able to SOLVE the problem. They're akin to putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound.
Ronald Reagan said it best:
"Government is NOT the solution, Government IS the problem".
“Anyone who has paid into the system for 30 to 40 years has GIVEN that MONEY to the Government and in all likelihood would like SOMETHING in return.”
Well, if they hadn’t voted, collectively, to spend every penny in that “savings account” and then run up a debt of $18T, I’d say you have a point.
As it is, those people will get my kids’ money - don’t worry about it - it’s theirs and my kids don’t need it anyway - nothing wrong with living in Third World lean-to’s. My kids have no choice, there aren’t enough in their generation to out vote today’s older people, because the older people (again, collectively) saw to that also.
My only hope now is that all the tax increases that are scheduled to hit Jan 1, 2013, actually do hit, as that will, at least, give them some hope of not actually having to live in a bankrupt, destitute country - just a very highly taxed country, where half of their income goes to older people demanding tribute.
But yes, they will get THEIR MONEY BACK, as they see it - regardless of the hell my kids have to live in.