I don't know. The problem is pending insolvency, which isn't so much related to lack of tax collection as it is the sheer size of the generation to retire. If the bottom line is that more has to be contributed to support them, then it sucks for those of us in the younger generation. But what alternative? To me, the most painless way is to raise the cap on withholding. I'm already accustomed to paying into social security until July, so it seems to me that the easiest change to stomach would be raising the maximum and keep on paying.

I think you really can't privatize SS either. Although an interesting idea in theory, the reality is that too many people aren't informed enough to make "the right" decisions. If the purpose of SS is to prevent those people from becoming insolvent dependents on the state, then you have to assume that it exists as a safety net, not as an investment alternative.

What I think we are going to have to deal with is cutting benefits to the older generation who consistently voted to not adequately fund its own future retirement. But cut too far and too many of them will become indigent. The resulting societal costs and emergency health care costs might well be greater than a tax increase today.