SS is not fatally flawed "because it did not adequately anticipate future rates of inflation or life expectancy." Its fatal flaw is its coerciveness. If one could freely buy and sell claims on future SS benefits, I assure you that the market mechanism would reduce participation and the price of the claim, thus raising SS returns to something reasonable."
Thank you for your analysis. I'm not informed enough on the subject to be able to intelligently counter your objections, if indeed there even are any sound arguments against them (other than the coercive one).
I think that we all would agree that the bottom line flaw in any sort of socialistic program run by the government is its coerciveness. But we are stuck with what we have and have to go from there.
What would you suggest as a *practical* solution, other than being able to buy "futures" if doing that would reduce participation?
A Lousy Investment - Social Security made sense in 1935. In 2001 it's dangerously outdated.
TAXPAYERS VICTIMIZED: Social Security a Ponzi scheme sanctioned by the government
Social Security lies - Exclusive: Walter Williams reveals agency's historic deceptions
WHAT SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND? - Quotes --There are some good links in the replies on this thread
Women and Social Security Reform
......and there's more, go HERE for more.
Frankly I don't see one. Politically impossible. There was a short window of opportunity near the top of the bull market, but it's gone.
Government undermines everything it subsidizes. Saving for retirement is no exception.
A nasty feedback loop has been powering up over the last few decades: Government subsidy of retirement will require greater taxation to fund obligations, and removes old age as an incentive to have (and be nice to) children. In order to maintain the social niche in which they were raised despite increased taxation, people delay having children, and have fewer when they do. This erodes the future tax base, requiring once again greater taxation per person.
The system will collapse of its own weight.
The one way out I see is massive immigration -- particularly immigration of the poor. It costs very little to raise a child in poverty, so the tax disincentives for having children is much less for them. But this does nothing to address the long-term destruction of the middle class, and is the road to looking more like, well, Mexico.