How Do We Fix Social Security?

 This topic interests me for many reasons.  The most obvious reason is the fact that Social Security will not last!  This program is not capable of being sustained in its current structure.  It will not only break us, it will consume us - already, 33% of the revenue taken into the Treasury is paid out through Social Security.  We must fix this.  I could talk about the dangers of the entitlement mentality, and point out that this is exactly what happens when you rely on a government, any government, to take care of you...but I won't - not yet anyway.  Unfortunately, most of the body of congress in Washington today lack the fortitude and foresight to even acknowledge that there is an elephant in the room, let alone offer solutions to fix it.

Well, I'm not a politician, so I'll take a stab at this!  First off, I realize that I don't have all the answers, so what I am offering is a starting point of ideas; something that we can build on.  The best plan will come from a multitude of inputs, much like our Constitution itself.

Here are the basics for my plan

To start, let's be honest; Social Security is a ponzi scheme.  In a ponzi scheme, someone always gets gypped.  It's unfortunate, but it's life.  So, we have to determine who gets gypped.  Sorry, kids, it's you.  Here is my initial idea.

Starting with FY2012 (1 October, 2011):

With this plan, we will start phasing out social security immediately, while still honoring the promises we have to those not young enough to prepare.  This idea  gives full benefits to those who have almost no time to invest; give partial benefits to supplement those who have time enough to only partially invest; and gives a small supplement to those who have enough time to get most everything in order.  With this plan, we will start to see huge reductions in cost over the next couple of decades, eventually phasing it out altogether.

Part of my plan is also to reduce the Social Security tax, in order to more fairly diffuse the burden across the spectrum.  We must not increase taxes, however, so we instead must make cuts.  I have a page "The Budget Cuts We Need" that lists a great number of spending cuts I have proposed.

 I know, it's a tough concept for some to imagine, to assume that people should take care of themselves.  The thought that we should provide for our own retirements as opposed to a reliance on our federal government to provide for us.  When you understand the limited roll of the federal government as spelled out in the Constitution - particularly in Articles I & II - you embark on a journey of logic and guidance that culminates in the full understanding of what the federal government should provide.  You start to realize that the government is only supposed to give you equal opportunity, not equal results; the freedom to prosper or fail, to strive for greatness or settle for mediocrity, to be or not to be.  The government does not exist to give you stuff!  It produces nothing, so anything it has to give has been first taken from others.  We would do well to remember what Thomas Jefferson warned about when he said “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”

As far as I'm concerned, the government has given me enough...