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The Annoyed Man wrote:

74novaman wrote:Social security should be ended now. Just because the boomer generation got suckered into a Ponzi scheme doesn't mean my generation should pay for their mistake.

My father's parents' generation got suckered into a Ponzi scheme by FDR. The rest of us were required, by existing law, yourself included, to contribute to it based on a promise made. I will be 59 in a couple of months, just 8 years away from the promise which I have paid into, by law, for all of my working life. I don't have a problem with privatizing social security, but if that is to happen, I want each and every living taxpayer to receive every penny they paid into it refunded to them so that they can then invest it according to their own choices. If that means that some poor person can't have government funded abortions, too bad. If that means that some corporation loses a tax loophole to pay for it, too bad. That fund was supposed to be secured (as in Social Security). Instead, Congress has been treating it as revenue. If they had not done so, the system would not be anywhere near insolvency today. However, the payout is now a lawful obligation of the federal government. If they can't meet that obligation, then something else will have to go so that they can meet it—whether that payout takes the form of monthly retirement income, or whether it takes the form of lump sum payouts to investors so that they can reinvest it more securely.

If you're younger than me, then it is safe to say that I am vested to a larger degree in the outcome of social security reform than you are. That "rob Peter to pay Paul" kind of snarkiness can cut both ways. You don't want to pay into my retirement. Fine. I want all my money back. All of it. I want you to get your money back too, but since I'm a bigger investor than you by virtue of having been in the work place for far longer, I should be ahead of you in the payout line. I'll get mine. If there's any money left, maybe you'll get yours. How do you like that? We're not talking about a bad investment in a private corporation here. We're talking about the full faith and credit of the United States of America. I whole-heartedly agree that SS is a ponzi-scheme. I whole-heartedly agree that the system needs to be reformed. I whole-heartedly agree that reformation should consist of privatizing it. But, I also insist on getting paid back every penny of what I put into it, since I had no legal choice in the matter. Anything less is highway robbery. So, if you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet (which seems to be your POV), better that your, smaller, less valuable egg be broken than my, larger, more valuable egg.

How do you like that?