AnalPhilosopher

I've tried, with limited success, to make the same argument with friends, both liberal and conservative. It is amazing to me how many people really believe that SS is a retirement program or investment vehicle. Equally false is the idea that the money taken from your pay in the form of SS taxes belongs to you. If you live long enough you will collect more than you paid in. If you die too soon your heirs are not entitled to any balance left in your "account".

Social Security is a wealth re-distribution scheme, just like Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamps. There should be a means test, and reduced benefits depending on an assessment of your wealth; that is, if you think there should be Social Security at all.

Well, I've always seen it as necessary, to involve the upper classes in the SS program. Otherwise, like welfare, it would be seen as nothing more than a 'poor program', and nobody would really care to fix it, and it would languish. Why is SS such a big issue? Because it affects everybody and everybody has an interest in getting it to work; this is in part perhaps why it was extended to others who would not need it as much.