If Social Security and Medicare were treated as a safety net rather than part of everyone's retirement, then the problem would be a lot smaller.

Of course, the problem would be a lot smaller too if everyone didn't live so long. If/when our population stabilizes, it should become more managable if people can and do work a substantial portion of their lives. The American Dream of retiring at 65 and living to be 90 isn't economically sustainable under the present system.

There's a fundamental unfairness about the taxation of the present system. There should be more means-testing and the taxable income cap should be raised if they really want to get the system under control. As it is, I think we all know that nothing will be done unless there's a crisis, and when that crisis comes there will probably be a lot of other problems that have to be dealt with, so even then I wouldn't expect big changes.

A solution that may present itself, and one that doesn't have as much risk politically (compared to overt cuts or overt tax increases) is: They decide to end automatic COLAs, and inflation is allowed to go to 7-10+% again, then that 20-30 year problem suddenly starts to look like less of a problem (future dollars are much cheaper). Of course, it would be a disaster for the economy, but hey...

:-(

Cheers,
Scott.