Let me put it to you gently here Tom. Those social programs you speak of are the price you pay for being in a country where you have the opportunities that have been afforded to you. When you pay into Social Security, it's not for your retirement. It's to ensure that seniors in this country aren't begging on the streets as they near the end of their lives. I so wish you'd grown up in an era when that was the case. If the programs are taking too much of your precious paycheck then maybe you ought to get two jobs to help with the burden just as much of the country has to do every day just to keep from eating Ramen noodles every meal.

I have no tolerance for the greed that has grown in this country. Everyone has somehow come to expect absolute comfort and wealth and the hell with anyone else that can't make it on their own.

And Tom, the issue became morality the moment you started attacking "entitlement" programs that make our country a civilized place to live. If those programs are bleeding money it's because the needs have grown, not out of the greediness or laziness of the recipients but because of the changing demographics of our aging generation. The citizens of this country created this financial mess and this need and they have the financial responsibility to make it right. It won't be fixed by investing the money in the stock market or forcing people to save on their own. If that had been an option, it would have worked in the 1920's. Obviously there's huge risks in those methods.

No Tom, the burden is on all of us. Call it collectivism or whatever the hell you want but it boils down to a basic social responsibility the citizens of a great country have to their fellow countrymen. If it could happen on an individual level I'd say go for it but we're in the throes of the "me" generation. Fat chance anyone's going to sell their cabin cruiser to ensure their parents live in comfort.

FDR saw that human nature would ensure that the divide between rich and poor would continue to grow to unmanageable proportions without government moderation and came up with brilliant programs to ensure that the needy wouldn't be pushed to the side at the end of their lives. With that fix however came a responsibility to future generations to fund the system, no matter what it took. Right now it takes a bit of sacrifice....from everyone. Bite your lip and be an American.

Art