I recognize that we’ve all been paying into social security, but if retirees are depending on that for most of their income, wouldn’t it be more responsible to continue working? What if social security became a last resort, reserved only for those who could no longer work and truly needed it? In a short period of years, this self-imposed and cyclical burden on society would be lifted. And people could begin investing that money wisely for retirement, simultaneously putting their wealth back into the economy instead of the (let’s face it) irresponsible government’s coffers.
I would gladly opt out of social security now, forfeiting any future “benefits,” for the ability to invest that money on my own. And to be consistent with my expectations of others, I would even agree to continue to pay into the system for a while longer and not receive any benefit, so long as it meant an end to the system. This would require similar attitudes and actions from my peers. But the result would be that future generations would not have to pay into this broken system at all. Someone is going to get screwed in this mess we’ve made, but it has to end sometime.