This system would have been fine as long as the working population grew faster than the retired population. Unfortunately, in the past couple of years this trend has been reversed. The ratio of workers to retirees is steadily declining. This is a problem because it lowers the amount of funds while the demand for the funds is in turn increasing. Therefore, some time down the line the retirees will reap lesser returns or, a worse case scenario, have no return at all.
Several factors contribute to the increase in retired persons.
One factor is the rise in the population during the 1940's, which became known as the baby boom generation. This generation will retire soon. Another contributor to the retired population is the increasing number of Americans relying heavily on the Social Security System as a source of their retired income. Another factor contributing to the increase of retired persons is that Americans are living longer. When our Social Security system first started, life expectancy for a male was only 59 years.