by Rand E Oertle

Created on: June 14, 2009   Last Updated: June 15, 2009

As with most of these debate questions, the question itself is so misleading and polarizing that it becomes impossible to adequately discuss the critical parameters without distorting the answer and creating emotional descent. America has made promises to its senior citizens. We must keep them. Social Security should not be discontinued, but it must be drastically altered if it is to be saved. Of course, it won't be because there is no political will to make the necessary changes.

Social Security is a system designed for the weakest of us, who are either too undisciplined to save for retirement, or have had a cataclysmic event that has wiped out their retirement savings.

Even though, I am writing in opposition to Social Security benefits, I believe it could have been a monumental success. It is, after all, just a savings (insurance) system for retirement. There is unfortunately, a concomitant monumental unfairness to the system that many families find out in the worst possible way and time. It is at the death of a loved one who dies just as he or she reaches retirement age.

There are 9 factors which must be considered in answering whether Social Security benefits should be continued or severely altered.

Factor #1: Since all the money you have saved is lost if you die at retirement and the government gets everything you paid in all your life, while your family gets nothing, a system must be established to allow residual savings in your Social Security account to be transferred to your heirs. This cannot be done when government is the beneficiary. Chile's private retirement system allows for this.

Factor #2: Social Security would have worked if politicians has kept their filthy hands off the SS funds and allowed them to grow. Social Security is nothing more than a forced savings. Because many of us are sporadic savers at best, the forced savings requirement is a good one. It is one of the elements that could work in a private system just as well, provided politicians can't get their hands on our money.

Factors #3: Al Gore's "LOCK BOX" he so highly touted during his presidential campaign, was robbed by politicians like, whom else, Al Gore. The Social Security lock box is empty. One must only look to the baby boom generation to find the perfect illustration of what could have been right, and what went wrong.

Baby Boomers are beginning to retire. Their Social Security contributions would have grown as they reached retirement. The huge

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