On Mon, 05 Dec 2016 15:20:51 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:17:54 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

For example, if the SS trust fund were configured as a blind trust,
one divided into many diverse pieces and administered by contracted
private management firms, the odds are it would not only be flush with
money for the foreseeable future, but it would also produce an
enormous shot in the arm for private industry and hence employment

I agree with that but the left calls that "privatizing SS" and that is
seen as being as bad as anything else anyone has proposed.
The other problem is the tax was not high enough to support all of the
programs that have been allowed to raid the fund like SSI.
LBJ put the whole thing "on budget" to hide the cost of his war and
since then it is just a government welfare program, taking money from
the general fund and giving it to seniors along with a vast array of
other people.
FDR was the one who started raiding the money, to pay for his war.
Nobody has a plan to pay back all of the money that was taken and the
only way the government can get that money is with higher taxes.
This is not a question of SS failing. We are in a serious danger of
losing the "full faith and credit" of the US government over this
because those SS retirees will want the government to honor the
worthless paper in the "trust fund". They are already reneging on the
promise. They are pushing back the retirement date and they are taxing
money that was invested with "after tax" money. It was supposed to be
tax free.

Yes, I lived through all that history which is why I put forth the
broad brush solutions I posted above. Over the years, I have
documented the same suggestions in a slightly more formal manner and
have sent them to my representatives and to four or five different
presidents ( forget exactly how many). Not enough of my fellow
citizens have taken interest in the topic and the congress continues
to treat the trust fund like a cookie jar to be raided or a gravy pot
full of homemade meatballs to be swiped.