u/scoop813

Seems with declining birth rates and longer life expectancy the "pay as you go" system of funding retirement benefits is becoming outdated - the required pre-req demographics to make it work no longer exist. It's in the news all the time now and will only get worse. This has become a major societal issue.

So, what are the alternatives?

It seems like ideally, a generation would fund its own retirement. One of the negative consequences of the current system is it incentivizes older generations to take increasingly large amounts of wealth from younger ones with no repercussions for the older generation - advocating for higher social security taxes and such - while workers are just trying to survive, start families, save for their own retirement etc.

You end up with a system of intergenerational resentment - as working age generations feel like their money is being taken to fund the comforts of a generation that on average has more wealth than them to begin with.

Can we do a 401k style retirement account instead - still collect social security taxes like now - but then the money is evenly distributed into 401k style accounts for the entire generation that (hopefully) appreciate over the course of their careers?