I am a person who wants to see a new Social Security system of (1) mandatory private accounts (established with each person's payroll deductions) (2) supplemented as necessary with a means tested benefit (funded with progressive general taxes).
What are you really supporting?
I see Social Security as a path to doom. Who is really going to pay me any benefits I am going to receive under Social Security as it exists now. I have to look into the eyes of my own children. I know that there are too many people my age and too few children their age to make the burden of my retirement easy for them to bear. Social Security will make me a mill stone around their necks.
The system I seek is one that will allow me to build something of value today. And tomorrow, instead of holding my hand out to demand from my children that they hand over "my Social Security," I will be able to give them something of value for their labor. Instead of the zero-sum game we have now - where affluent current retires impoverish poorer younger workers in exchange for a lame promise that they too can drain the life out of their own children - we will have a system that benefits both the young and the old. I want a system that builds something for everyone and creates an endowment of assets instead of a legacy of debt.
