"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:

For a self-described economic expert, you sure have some weak points.

First, Obama said no such thing. Next, SS can't possibly be "gone"
because you will always have people paying into the system. The only
thing that has a potential to be "gone" is the SS trust fund, which
was a bad idea given to us by Reagan in the first place. Even if the
SS trust fund is "gone", FICA will still cover at least 75% of SS
payouts, even if all the doom-and-gloom predictions about SS come
true decades from now.

Actually, SS was a bad idea given to us by FDR in the first place.

SS was a great idea. It's original intent was simply to insure old people
wouldn't be eating out of trash cans, which was widespread at the time. Of
course, I happen to think old people eating out of trash cans isn't a great
idea. If you don't share that sentiment, I can certainly understand why
you'd think SS wasn't a great idea.

Unfortunately, SS has been expanded over the years and the elgibility age
hasn't been raised to reflect the reality of people living longer. The SS
maximum income level also hasn't kept pace with increases in income, and the
whole trust fund idea is a disaster. The result is you now have too many
people collecting benefits from too few, and the current FICA rate reflects
those failures.