How should we fix Social Security?

[Maid Mesmera]

I think we should make Social Security a completely voluntary program that no citizen pays into. When citizens work, they should keep what they earn and it should not be used to fund the retirement of someone else. I consider an inalienable right for us to be allowed to keep the fruits of our labor and do whatever we want with it and I find it morally wrong for the government to forcibly take what we earned and give it to another without our permission. If an elderly person loses their retirement savings in a market crash or are too disabled to work, they should fill out an application and ask the government for Social Security benefits and those benefits can be funded by legalizing and taxing marijuana, by ending foreign aid, by closing our military bases, by bringing our troops home from all the wars, by abolishing federal agencies (Dept.of Education, the FDA, the EPA, the DHS, etc.,) or by ending farm subsidies and all forms of corporate welfare. But, whatever revenue the government uses to fund Social Security, it must NOT come from the earnings of its citizens. Under this plan, no one is forced to pay into something they don't want to, no one's individual rights are infringed on, the government saves money, and no senior citizens are left to die. In other words, everyone's happy. Is this a good idea?

[Gee Wally]

Raise the cap a little

[Iron_Plague]

You want to fix Social Security? Okay, here are two things that would do it quickly.

1. Stop allowing Presidents to "borrow" from it to put money in to the General Fund.

2. Stop allowing kids under the age of 18 to collect disability checks. Those are meant to help people who cannot work because of a disability. Last time I checked kids weren't allowed to work.

[Master Chief]

The stock market has lost 45% of its value twice in a decade.

If that's what you want to invest in go ahead.

[B C]

Current obligations must be paid, sad but true. Ideally, younger people would be allowed to invest for their own retirement but even a 2% allowance proposed by the Bush administration was thwarted by the Democratic party in 2006. Taking the $$$ away from the D.C. politicians is a scary thing.

[jeeper_peeper321]

1. Increase the SS retirement age -- when SS started the SS retirement age was 62, when the average life span was just 55.

Now the average life span is 78 yrs old and the SS retirement age is still 62

2. Increase the wage cap for paying into SS from the current $108,000 to around $200,000

3. Either slightly reduce benefit levels or limit benefit level increases in the future.

[Meg]

The vast majority of the revenue of the Federal government comes from taxes on income or payroll taxes on wages so what you are proposing would shut down the Government not just a few departments. Plans without numbers are mo more than wishful thinking.