PRAUSA
The Problem
Social Security fails because it's built on forced sacrifice, violates individual rights, and is economically unsustainable by design.
Mitchell, Daniel J. (2025). Social Security’s $65.8 Trillion Problem.
Retrieved from https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com
America’s Social Security system is failing for one fundamental reason: it was built on the wrong moral premises. A program built on altruism and collectivism—on the premise that one group must sacrifice for another—cannot work in a nation founded on individual rights. The moral is the practical. When a system violates rights, when it compels sacrifice, the results will be destructive. And that is exactly what we see today.
Social Security was never a savings program. It was a jerry-rigged pay-as-you-go transfer scheme built without regard for economic reality. From the start, it assumed that younger workers could and should be forced to support older retirees, and that those who produce more should be compelled to carry those who earn less. It treats higher-income earners not as individuals with rights, but as inexhaustible resources to be tapped for the “needs” of others. By design, the producers are sacrificed for a misguided cause supposedly justified in the false name of equity.
This violates the central moral principle on which America was founded: that each individual possesses the right to live for his own sake, to keep the product of his work, and to pursue his own happiness. The Declaration states the purpose of government clearly: “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.” A system that seizes the earnings of one citizen to give to another is a rejection of the principle upon which America was built.
And the consequences are predictable—and now unavoidable. The system is collapsing under its own weight.
The latest Trustees Report makes clear that by 2033, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted.
Under current law, benefits must be cut by roughly 23% immediately—and further reductions follow.
The demographic trend lines worsen every year: fewer workers per retiree, longer lifespans, and shrinking real returns.
But even before insolvency, Social Security has been a catastrophically bad deal. Workers at the bottom—those it claims to protect—receive less than twenty percent of what they would have accumulated had their payroll taxes been placed in real savings accounts, compounding over their working lifetimes. Even allocating half of their FICA taxes into Personal Retirement Accounts would have multiplied their retirement income several times over—while allowing the other half to improve their standard of living during their productive years.
The economic damage is larger still. For nearly a century, trillions of dollars that should have become private savings, private investment, business formation, capital accumulation, and economic expansion were instead siphoned into a pay-as-you-go pipeline. Those lost savings represent lost growth—lost opportunity—for every American. The lost opportunity cost is incalculable.
This is the problem:
An immoral premise—altruism and collectivism—embedded into law.
A system that violates rights.
A program economically incapable of surviving.
A structure that impoverishes the very people it claims to help.
A deal so bad that nearly any rational alternative would have produced far greater prosperity.
Social Security, as designed, cannot be sustained. It cannot be fixed because its core premise is the problem. And any attempt to fix it would only prolong the agony.
But there is an elegant solution to The Problem—one that aligns with American principles and restores both solvency and prosperity. See The Solution.
Learn More
Want to learn more or get involved?
Click the link below to get added to our newsletter and learn ways to get involved with the move to PRA accounts.
PRAUSA
© Copyright 2025. Personal Retirement Accounts. All Rights Reserved. Content may not be reproduced without permission.
The Problem
Social Security fails because it's built on forced sacrifice, violates individual rights, and is economically unsustainable by design.
Mitchell, Daniel J. (2025). Social Security’s $65.8 Trillion Problem. Retrieved from
America’s Social Security system is failing for one fundamental reason: it was built on the wrong moral premises. A program built on altruism and collectivism—on the premise that one group must sacrifice for another—cannot work in a nation founded on individual rights. The moral is the practical. When a system violates rights, when it compels sacrifice, the results will be destructive. And that is exactly what we see today.
Social Security was never a savings program. It was a jerry-rigged pay-as-you-go transfer scheme built without regard for economic reality. From the start, it assumed that younger workers could and should be forced to support older retirees, and that those who produce more should be compelled to carry those who earn less. It treats higher-income earners not as individuals with rights, but as inexhaustible resources to be tapped for the “needs” of others. By design, the producers are sacrificed for a misguided cause supposedly justified in the false name of equity.
This violates the central moral principle on which America was founded: that each individual possesses the right to live for his own sake, to keep the product of his work, and to pursue his own happiness. The Declaration states the purpose of government clearly: “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.” A system that seizes the earnings of one citizen to give to another is a rejection of the principle upon which America was built.
And the consequences are predictable—and now unavoidable. The system is collapsing under its own weight.
The latest Trustees Report makes clear that by 2033, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted.
Under current law, benefits must be cut by roughly 23% immediately—and further reductions follow.
The demographic trend lines worsen every year: fewer workers per retiree, longer lifespans, and shrinking real returns.
But even before insolvency, Social Security has been a catastrophically bad deal. Workers at the bottom—those it claims to protect—receive less than twenty percent of what they would have accumulated had their payroll taxes been placed in real savings accounts, compounding over their working lifetimes. Even allocating half of their FICA taxes into Personal Retirement Accounts would have multiplied their retirement income several times over—while allowing the other half to improve their standard of living during their productive years.
The economic damage is larger still. For nearly a century, trillions of dollars that should have become private savings, private investment, business formation, capital accumulation, and economic expansion were instead siphoned into a pay-as-you-go pipeline. Those lost savings represent lost growth—lost opportunity—for every American. The lost opportunity cost is incalculable.
This is the problem:
An immoral premise—altruism and collectivism—embedded into law.
A system that violates rights.
A program economically incapable of surviving.
A structure that impoverishes the very people it claims to help.
A deal so bad that nearly any rational alternative would have produced far greater prosperity.
Social Security, as designed, cannot be sustained. It cannot be fixed because its core premise is the problem. And any attempt to fix it would only prolong the agony.
But there is an elegant solution to The Problem—one that aligns with American principles and restores both solvency and prosperity. See The Solution.
Learn more
Want to learn more or get involved?
Click the link below to get added to our newsletter and learn ways to get involved with the move to PRA accounts.
© Copyright 2025. Personal Retirement Accounts. All Rights Reserved. Content may not be reproduced without permission.