...On Social Security

As the Baby Boomer generation retires, the Social Security Trust Fund has projected deficits in the tens of trillions of dollars over the next several decades.  This deficit threatens to consume all of federal spending resulting in huge budget deficits, the destruction of the value of the dollar, and economic hardships and inflationary pressures the likes of which this country has never seen.  The looming Social Security Crisis is possibly the greatest example of poor government planning, political ineptitude, and  generational theft ever seen in history.  The program was doomed to failure from the beginning due to a poor design that limited the funds ability to grow adequately over time and depended on an ever-expanding tax base.  This failure was compounded when our politicians irresponsibly allowed the Social Security Trust Fund to be continually raided in an attempt to balance out-of-control federal spending.  It has not been a secret that the Social Security Trust Fund is rapidly heading towards insolvency, this fact has been well known and publicized for decades.  Unfortunately the baby boomer generation has irresponsibly failed to take any substantial steps to fix this impending crisis and has knowingly and willingly burdened their children, grandchildren, and other future generations due to their greed. short-sightedness, and fiscal irresponsibility.  To stave off certain financial disaster, the United States must immediately take drastic measures shore up Social Security.  These measures will not be popular with retired seniors however, given their inability to responsibly address the problem during their working lifetime, I do not believe that it is right to  now burden their children or grandchildren with the responsibility of cleaning up their mess.  Ideally we should begin to phase out Social Security and remove the federal government from the retirement game altogether. However, given that this is politically impossible, some aggressive action must be taken to prevent social security from gobbling up and destroying our economy.

First, in order to stop the hemorrhaging, we must immediately place the Social Security Trust fund off-limits for any purposes other than Social Security disbursements.
Second, we need to raise the minimum Social Security eligibility age from 67 to 70 years old.  In a nutshell, when initially implemented in 1935 social security eligibility was 65 years of age for those born before 1938, age 66 if born before 1955, and then to 67 years of age for those born thereafter.  Since the inception of Social Security in 1935, the expected lifespan of United States citizens has increased dramatically, thus increasing working and retirement lifetimes.  Due to improvements in public health measures and health care knowledge the average life expectancy has increased from 62 years old to 78 years old since the inception of the social security system, thus dramatically increasing the number of retirement years.  Since people are now healthier and are more physically capable of working later in life in order to save more for the additional retirement years, we need to further adjust the social security eligibility guidelines to reflect increased lifespans.
Each working individual should have their and their employer's social security contributions place into an account that is distinctly and solely theirs, much like a Health Saving Account.  The account should be part of their estate and inheritable on a tax-free basis, an idea that will promote savings in this country. By placing social security collections into personal accounts, individuals can better track their contributions and will have a sense of ownership of their own retirement plan.  Additionally, this will help this money remain free of government thievery.

Allow individuals the option of placing a portion of their Social Security savings into low risk interest bearing accounts, or in broad-based market funds.  Perhaps a better idea for consideration is the establishment of an account that automatically adjusts asset allocation based on risk and age with funds moving from riskier to less risky investments as the individual ages.  This would allow for a greater return on the savings, thus bringing social security closer to solvency, as well as mitigate the risk of people losing their retirement savings.  A federal agency would be place in charge of determining permissible investments.

The cap on wages susceptible to social security taxation should not be lifted.  This is a blatant attempt at income redistribution and is un-American.  Social security was never established to be an additional tax burden on the people but rather to be a "forced' retirement plan.  We must return to a society that promotes personal responsibility, part of which is individuals consuming less and saving more for the future.  Any other solution will simply delay the day of reckoning when Americans can no longer finance their spending habits and the entire financial system collapses.