Economists see a demographic time bomb ready to tear through future federal budgets.
Nearly everyone agrees Social Security needs to be reformed. How that happens is another matter. Unlike most pension plans, current revenues earmarked for Social Security go to support current retirees. By 2014, in part because people are living longer, that ratio will be 2.7 workers to one retiree. Not even the most ardent defenders of the status quo believe that raising Social Security taxes is the solution.