One-eighth of every paycheck

One of my favorite columnists, Jeff Jacoby, has a great overview of the Social Security issue on Town Hall:

One tiny notch at a time, payroll taxes have been ratcheted up to a level that would have been unthinkable in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's day. No wonder Social Security is so unpopular among the young. It provides no security for their retirement, while it impoverishes them in the present. In exchange for an eighth of their earnings today, it guarantees nothing but higher taxes tomorrow. That there are politicians who defend so regressive an arrangement wouldn't have surprised FDR. But how shocked he would be that they call themselves Democrats.

As I've noted before, 80% of Americans now dole out more in payroll taxes than income taxes. I can't understand how Democrats can justify this Ponzi scheme in its current form, much less the prospect of a lifetime of taxation followed by automatic benefit cuts. It's time to start thinking of 21st century solutions. (By way of one of my daily reads, Social Security Choice.)