Social Darwinists hate Social Security 'cause they want to see losers dying in the streets.

Communists hate Social Security 'cause they'd like to see people suffering more under capitalism in hopes of revolution.

Smart capitalists like Social Security 'cause it helps keep the masses pacified.

Dumb capitalists hate Social Security 'cause they have to contribute 50% (except when they 1099 their slaves).

I pull down about $2400 a month, give or take from Social Security. Thanks, America. I gained all this largess by merit. I am old. (Chortle!)

I am able to invest part of it in good scotch, part in my country club dues, part in some decent beer and the rest I just piss away.

It's a mixed bag, owing to the fact that the purpose of the system has been perverted for various reasons over the past 70 years. To begin with, SS was never intended to be the sole retirement income for anyone, but, that WWII generation had other ideas. The benefit amount was raised again and again over the decades to the point where eventual pay-outs became totally out of whack with the amount actually paid in. The typical WWII Social Security recipient garnered three times the benefits, in cash value, of what he/she was actually entitled to. No wonder the system is going to go bankrupt in about a quarter century. Also, the Congress has habitually raided the SS standing fund, futher underminding its stability. People are living much longer than they did when the system was devised, and, as a result, receive benefits for much longer. This adds to the pressure on the system. And the demographic bulge of baby boomers was not foreseen back in the 1930s. Most folks don't realize that SS is a transfer system, not a pension fund, so, at a certain point, most recipients are getting money that truly does not belong to them, so, they're actually on welfare for most of their likely benefit period. This is an issue that has to be addressed in the next few years, because millions of baby boomers who paid in more than any other age segment of American society are going to end up being shorted.

What I don't think is very fair is that they're taking money out of paychecks for Social Security, and then nine times out of ten it won't be there by retirement age. And from what I heard, this could happen in a shorter amount of time than what one thinks. It is something to be very concerned about.

Again, it has more than its share of flaws, but I'm wary of the simplistic folks who want to dismantle it. They never seem to have an answer to the "What then?" question.

Was helpful. . .but will be ruined by doddering DC old-farts who will make sure that they get theirs while my generation (who will foot the bill) will get nada. . .

its not enough to get by on for those that retire and a headache for those disabled having to deal with the underlying feeling that you get that they don't believe you need it.

I am not worried. I'm only 24 years old and I started a 401k about a year ago.

It will help until we don't have it anymore!

I'm OK with the violin playing. I'm OK with the concept of a majority (slim though it may have been) imposing this obligation on all the taxpayers in the country, fostering a lifelong dependence by many people on an easily changeable investment scam, known in some places, as a government shell game. (I'd like to see it stand the test of constitutionality that, say, prayer in schools has had to face) It's been changed so many times, it almost doesn't even resemble the "social security" system initially passed by Congress. So desperately in need of reform was it, as Bush started his second term, that the contributor/beneficiary ratio is down to 3 to 1, reasonably projected to continue its consistent march toward 1 to 1 over the next decade or so. But the democrats in their blind hatred-driven obstruction of anything Bush proposes, have successfully derailed the bi-partisan effort by assuring today's contributors that there really is no significant problem with the system today. Overall, helpful to American society in spite of incredible waste , inefficiency and false claims of solvency. How a private firm guilty of such an obvious defalcation would be punished and publicly mocked and jeered at as a pariah.

I know several elderly people who would be in dire straits if not for their social security checks.A civilized society should have some way to take care of its senior citizens.Politicians who want to get their hands on this money and gamble it away on the stock market should be retired immediately,have their earnings seized-and forced to live on Social Security the rest of their lives.

Social security is a good system that despite its flaws allows retired and disabled Americans to continue to receive money to aid in their day to day living.