Solution 1

I saw the suggestion by kobzikov and the comments that followed, so if I may, let me toss out a solution to a problem and see where it goes.

Social Security is failing. It has been failing since the day it began. We need social security because people tend not to save money throughout their lives so the government stepped in and decided to do it for them. We all know that given the amount of money that the government takes over the course of an average citizen's working career, that citizen (you and me) really should be retiring on easy street rather than on "fixed income" avenue.

Solution:

I can't see a quick fix but I do see a fix that would eliminate most of the need for SS in about 50 to 60 years. The average person doesn't build wealth over the course of their working life for a couple of reasons. First, most are under the impression that you have to be wealthy in the first place in order to build weath. Secondly, most folks simply don't have the tools (knowledge) necessary to build wealth.

I propose that we implement an educational program beginning in pre-school and running through the 12th grade with the express purpose of teaching every child financial management. I would even go so far as to set up an account for every child with $100 on their first day of preschool which the child can claim as his or her own upon graduation from high school. At the very early ages, we can begin to impress upon the child the importance of saving and begin to create the habit of saving and progress through increasingly more advance financial management strategies throughout the course of their education. The $100 may be invested and divested as their knowledge grows, always under close supervision.

We have a habit of hiring incompetents to teach our children and in order for this program to work, we can't do that. The instructors must be required to pass a comprehensive evaluation program themselves every two or three years and they should be paid accordingly. From the earliest preschool grades, the child must be required to pass this class or not move on and continue in this vein until graduation. Success in this class must be required because success in life, in large part, will depend upon it.

A child who graduates from high school with a comprehensive financial education that has been taught over roughly 14 years will understand the importance of saving, will know how to generate wealth, will know that one doesn't need to make a lot of money over the course of his or her life in order to end up wealthy and will have the tools necessary to create and protect the wealth that he or she has built.

People who have these tools at their disposal during their working lives will not need handouts when they retire and they will in all likelyhood be retireing a decade or more earlier than we can with SS.