Bush's biggest regret

[FDG]

"Social Security" is ridiculous and nothing but generational theft.

Generally true, yet somehow if old people that end up starving along the roads aren't particularly pretty, even if you're fully supporting yourself / have planned for retirement. Basically there's a minimum of social security which is needed to avoid revolutions / plagues / extreme poverty. Plus, the way social security is built generally renders impossible any direct abolishment, since funds for current pensioners are gathered from current workers (otherwise the 1st generation of people with social security would end up paying for it without getting anything in return). Even "slow" abolishment is quite complicated, because for a time-bracket of 10 years a relatively large part of the population might end up starving / have to be supported by their families. Which would mean less mobility for young / middle-aged people, which generally decreases productivity.

[stevENTj]

Well technically Bush didn't even want to abolish it, he wanted to reform and privitize it by giving people 401k like investment accounts so that they could keep their own money and also get returns on it over time, which would make it a whole heck of a lot more efficient than the system today. If the excesses in the system over the past decades were actually put into the market rather than bled off into politicians pet projects it'd be a lot more financially stable today. Also no worries about your benefits being cut because of swings in number of workers vs number of retirees (the coming wave of baby boomer retirements). What's yours is yours, not somebody else's. Of course the AARP and other lefty groups went bat shit crazy to defeat it and they did, but at least he tried. And his plan never would have cut any benefits to seniors at all, contrary to what some opposition groups said. He would have grandfathered people in that are already on it or have been paying into it for most of their lives already.