The statistics on Social Security I saw once indicated that there would be a bit of a problem paying for all of the retirees. I don’t remember that source. It certainly wasn’t on the scale that the Republicans like to portray. Eliminating the cap would help.

I also don’t see why retirement age shouldn’t keep pace with life extension, at least to some extent.

I still maintain that borrowing FOR Social Security from a budget surplus (like we had in 2000) during population “bubbles” like the boomer generation, is preferable to moving the retirement age.

I see your point on moving the age based on life expectancy, but I guess I measure social security based on how much time you put into the system, not how much time you will draw out of it. It may be a financially unsolvent way to look at it, but it’s my opinion that it’s the “fair” way to do it. Increasing benefits based on when you start claiming (which they do now to some extent) is a better way to go about it. If you give people a larger reward for waiting, you may come out ahead in the long run due to the fact that some of them may die before claiming.

Also, speaking from personal experience, the $255 spousal death benefit is a joke. That should be raised to at least $1500, if not more, to help with final expenses.

The important thing to remember is that the nation is in massive debt right now and social security is one of the few systems in the black. So it probably makes more sense to work on the government budget before social sec. For instance, how about we stop giving massive tax breaks to megachurches that have giant projector screens and recording studio systems and gyms? That’s crazy!!

If the problem is declining population, why would these crazy fundies care about who’s following the rules? It’s well known that poorer people, NOT in the traditional stable, nuclear family, have more kids. You’d think they’d be begging for people to stop using birth control and start humping like rabbits. I don’t even get where traditional families comes into this.

I would like to retire while I am still able to enjoy retirement. My Mom worked to somewhere in her 70s - not because she wanted to, but because expenses pretty much forced her to. Then she had to quit because of poor health and even poorer eyesight. So now she doesn’t get to enjoy retirement either.

The statistics on Social Security I saw once indicated that there would be a bit of a problem paying for all of the retirees. I don’t remember that source. It certainly wasn’t on the scale that the Republicans like to portray. Eliminating the cap would help.

I also don’t see why retirement age shouldn’t keep pace with life extension, at least to some extent.

Not that I’m saying we should give it back–it’s a settled matter now, no matter how it happened. And as far as I know, there’s no racial requirement to be an American.

Feminism really is the best answer to overpopulation. On the whole, if WOMEN are in charge of their fertility, and have access to education, they’ll CHOOSE to have smaller families. (Not that I’m condemning having lots of children, but it’s certainly not for everyone)

That one guy said that there would be no native-born French who come from the traditional French population. He didn’t say there would be no native-born French. The country isn’t going to disappear. The demographic makeup of France will be very different. That’s what they don’t like.

And there the truth is exposed. The anti-population control movement is really about racism. The population in places like Africa, India and Indonesia (the country with the largest Muslim population on the planet) is exploding so we all have to be good white Christian soldiers and breed like rabbits so that our children can fight in God’s holy war against these heretics.

The BS and hubris of the modern day Christian Fundamentalist movement these days is so deep it’s a wonder they can even breath. They’re putting the entire world on a railroad straight to hell and they don’t care because at the last minute Jesus is going to rapture all the believers up to heaven anyway.

Fundamental Christianity has become nothing more than another suicide cult in my mind. The only difference between them and Heaven’s Gate is that they want to bring the rest of the world down with them.

I have a few comments about your points, Ron.

Overblown Fear #1: Economic Prosperity Requires Population Growth

In addition to all that you said, which was spot on, what will in fact be impacted by a population decline is the mega-corporations. They are constantly in need of growth in order to survive in the stock market. That’s why in an unregulated economy, consolidation and buy-outs are SO common. But the truth is that a population does better overall consuming from many smaller companies than with fewer huge companies. Sure, we might see GE or Microsoft or whatever fall (or drastically change). And there will be a short-term major impact. But small and smart entrepreneurs will pick up the slack and everybody else will be better off in the long run. The only reason constant growth happens is because consumers increase in number. But why does an economy have to grow? If it stays the same and all in the population are doing well, that’s a happy situation.

[Semi-] Overblown Fear #3: Too Many Old People Sucking Services; Not Enough Young to Pay for It

This is a pet-peeve of mine. There is no social security crisis. There’s certainly no need to raise the retirement age. Honestly, I think we should reduce it (my opinion). Social Security is stable through 2050, at which point it will pay out more than it brings in. This problem can EASILY be solved by eliminating the social security tax cap. Right now social security is a regressive tax. The middle class pay far more of a portion of their income than the rich do. Remove the cap — problem solved until like 2100 (unless you reduce the retirement age, which again I personally advocate for), at which point you can borrow from the (hopefully by this point) budget surplus from other taxes to pay for any “surges” in populations that may happen from time to time. If we can borrow from the Chinese to pay for our wars, we can borrow from the treasury (in a budget surplus situation) to pay for our elderly.

The truth is, there’s no social security crisis. It is made up by the right wingers as an excuse to divert public money into their private investments. Think about it. Are there any other aspects of the budget politicians are planning PAST 2050 for? None! It’s an excuse. Can you imagine if social security was tied up in investments in the current housing mess?! The REAL financial crisis is deficit spending due to the war in Iraq and unnecessary tax cuts for the uber-wealthy.

As for the borrowing against social security to pay for other things… That IS a problem. But our elderly and disabled should NOT bear the burden of asshole politicians cooking the books.