Our generation has no right to take Social Security and Medicare from them. We can deny it to ourselves, though. Beat that drum, and start now. I'll be right there with you. We can do this for our children, and the next-youngest will help us. But taking it from the old will not work.

I completely agree. At some point the Social Security system and Medicare (remember that Social Security is a MUCH smaller problem than Medicare) need to be phased out for younger people, while maintaining the commitment made to older people. I would bail out of Social Security this second, and would even be willing to write off what I have already paid in. And I'm a greedy, selfish capitalist. I wonder how many others would do this too.

Where the cutoff point would be, and exactly how it would be done, is not an easy question. Step one is to recognize these things as welfare programs, and realize that for many years younger people will be supporting older ones from their taxes but not receiving the same benefits when they retire. In the meantime, they would have to support their own retirements. A tough sell, but necessary.

Considering that my taxes already support all manner of other welfare programs that I will never be on the receiving end of, and I manage to put up with it (although not quietly), maybe it's not that far-fetched to think that most Americans can tolerate one more load on their backs for a few decades.

I wonder how the numbers would work out if such a phaseout were enacted.

(You do realize that any serious reforms would be over the dead bodies of the Democratic Party.)

In the meantime, you can do one other thing:

Violently oppose anyone who tries to create a NEW entitlement, like Medicare large-scale prescription drug coverage, or God forbid, single payer health care.