This piece has been around for a few days. It has only garnered a few comments. My suspicion is that NR readers like more simple pieces.

Retirement savings need to start at birth. First, change Birthright Citizenship. Those born in the USA are only natural born citizens if one or both parents are US citizens…coupled with this change…

- Every child born to one or both parents who are US citizens gets a $3000 gift from the people (Uncle Sam). This gift is invested targeting higher returns and gets a little more conservative with each decade that passes after 30. This 3k “gift” is funded by a small payroll tax paid by workers (not employers). This tax would amount to only 2 to 3 dollars a week.

- Give parents a matching tax credit up to $1500 if they start a retirement savings account for their newborn child in the first year after birth. The matching tax credit also goes into the child’s retirement account.

- give parents a tax deduction if they contribute to their child’s retirement plan any or all years up to the age of 18. Limit the deduction to n. (Maybe $1000/yr).

All of the above indexed to inflation. All or a combination of the above steps can be used to encourage starting retirement savings at birth instead of waiting decades longer.

SS Payroll Taxes are going up. The freeloaders in Congress will make sure nothing gets done until it is absolutely necessary. Then the tax increase will be steeper.

A 3% payroll tax increase on everyone over the age of 45? Nope. Dead in the water. Though I suppose as boomers die off, it will be politically easier to impose a tax on Gen X or cutting their benefits in retirement even more than 20%. I get the impression the writer’s definition of “affluent” are those over the age of 45.

Removing the limit on how much income is subject to the payroll tax is an obvious step. The downside will be those making over “n” hundred thousand dollars a year will seek out other forms of compensation, stock/stock options, etc to get around the payroll tax.

Worst of all, the all the experts are looking at this the wrong way. Retirement Savings need to start at birth.

They just need to keep raising the age of eligibility slowly, say 6 months every 2 years.

I think the ideal system would have SS kick in at the "life expectancy" age, currently 77. This way, a person can plan carefully to have enough saved from the time he chooses to retire to the time he's likely to die, and if he's lucky enough to live longer, then we get government safety net. It would be difficult for everyone to save as if we'll all live to be 99 years old!

Such a system would probably be easy to make balance out in terms of revenue collection vs money spent.

We also need to stop handing out SSDI to every fat person who has eaten his way to Type II diabetes.