>Part of my argument with Max and Doug is over the possibility of success
>in achieving some of that change in balance of forces in expropriating
>part of the income of the wealthy.
Social Security is as good a social program as the U.S. has, and our elderly poverty rate is one of the few areas where we're not an international disgrace. The program is popular (which is why such a devious PR campaign has to be waged to privatize it), efficient, effective, and mildly redistributive. And it's funded by a flat-to-regressive tax on labor income. Its universality is what makes it popular, even if the funding method is less than ideal.
Doug