You said: "What guaranteed future income? What the Government created it can take away, or (in this case)
bankrupt."
It seems as though the predominance of younger, angry, and downright hostile posters are the ones who want to "take it away" from current retirees, not the Government. I wonder what the impact would be on SS solvency if ALL IRA's, 401k's, and Roth IRS's were to be immediately discontinued as tax advantaged vehicles, taxes on all accumulations were to become due immediatedly, and the resultant revenues used to bolster SS.
I can imagine the cries of "foul" that we would hear from these posters. All we would be doing, though, would be to revert back to the system under which most current retirees had to save for their retirement. Stop being so angry. Sure, you're getting the short end of ONE stick, but you're getting the long end of OTHERS. We all have advantages and we all have disadvantages -- they're just different of each of us.
The comments that I have seen are basically the same as I saw on the other forum, and got so sick and tired of seeing that I quit. For the most part, it was one generation sniping at the other with no actual constructive suggestions that even tried to take some of the very good thoughts and put them together into a workable solution.
Let's face it -- you KNOW that, in all fainess, benefits to current retirees cannot be reduced. That would totally destroy the retirement plans that took 50 years to implement. There may be some "means testing", but it had better be at a realistic level -- not the artificially low level at which SS benefits are taxed. It seems to me that any solution (at least for the interim) has to involve maintaining current levels of benefits to current and near-future retirees, some "means testing" starting at a realistic level, some gradual testing of the impact of investing in the private sector, and (yes) maybe even a tax increase. Privatizing won't work because it would be contrary to the very basic reason SS came into being in the first place.
For those who so vehemently want to "privatize" and let everyone shift for themselves, I suggest that you that look VERY closely at what life was like in the 30's with breadlines and extremely widespread poverty. It could happen again!!!!! We may not be our brother's keeper, but we surely cannot totally ignore him either.
