as the current if the income cap is raised to that lovely $200,000 figure that's used in most other taxing categories. And, do remember that Social Security helps children whose parent dies and the disabled of all ages who need assistance. Privatizing it, decreasing the access by increasing retirement age, or decreasing the existing benefits are not the solutions needed to make sure all citizens can receive this benefit of their labor now and in the future. I am 52 years old. Ryan keeps talking about the young generation has time to do something else. What about those of us that are not young but not 55 and who's only nestegg - 401K blew up in smoke during the crash. I lost $75,000 out of it in one quarter. Even though it was being managed by a good firm. I can't recover that in the next 15 years given my salary got slashed by $20,000 a year as well during the downturn. I am not asking for pity - just need to make sure SS that I paid into will be there for me. I can't understand why the Dems haven't pushed more on this over the past few months. Both Ryan and Romney strongly support privatizing Social Security, while a large majority of Americans obviously don't. Ryan's comment shows clearly that he doesn't understand what SS is all about. There is much more to it than retirement income. And it's strange that Ryan overlooks those other elements, since he