Name:   architect - Subject:   MM, Soc Security is NOT a retirement fund Date:   10/13/2015 9:11:18 PM (updated 10/13/2015 9:15:19 PM)

and never has been.  It is an insurance fund...there is a difference...the money being received by retirees is not money from funds they have invested but from the FICA payments being paid by those still working just as those same retirees, while still working, paid in for SS payments to their parents.  Social Security was designed during the Great Depression that way to make it as safe and sustainable as possible.  Sure, a private system investing in the markets usually does well, but occasionally it results in disaster.

MM and all of us are free to invest our own funds to the extent we are comfortable and able, but FICA is NOT an investment fund and should never be treated as such.

Now, it is true that is is not sustainable in it's current ''form''.  It can be fixed without major surgery by gradually raising the retirement age and raising the amount of income subject to the FICA.