Reply #33: As far as the OP goes..

[moose65]

No, I don't think SS should be made voluntary. For one thing, it's hard to convince a 20-year-old that he or she needs to invest part of their earnings for retirement. For another, if we suddenly took millions of people out of the system, it would collapse and be unable to pay the benefits to our current retirees, and we would be back to the situation that created SS in the first place: a large class of destitute senior citizens. We certainly have a short memory in this country, don't we? That being said, I certainly think that we should discuss the fact that the self-employed are taxed double for SS; there should be some sort of compromise we could come to on that issue. And, I think the earnings cap needs to be raised, as well.