Do you really think they'd be lynched? Figuratively or literally? I
really don't think so. . . . Most people my age don't believe
that Social Security will last until we are entitled to receive it...
My peers and I had the same belief in the seventies. We figured the system
would be broke by the time we retired. We were very wrong. As a
self-employed real estate broker I even made adjustments to how I received
income--taking notes or ownership interest in properties--to avoid social
security taxes, figuring it would be money lost. That plan came back to
bite me, with lower benefits today than I would have accrued had I declared
maximum income and paid in as much as possible..
Politicians know that they would have seriously bad things done to
them--like being thrown out of office, the worst thing that can happen to a
career politician--if they jerked the system out from under people. I'm not
sure of the true number of recipients, I think it is about forty million.
Many of those recipients would literally die from starvation or exposure to
the elements if their benefits ceased. Social Security has long been
considered sacrosanct, untouchable, by politicians, who fear the wrath of
the people.
Minor tweaking can keep the present system going for longer than any of us
now alive