Get real about Social Security

While the top Republican presidential candidates are trying to bash each other in debates with the club of Social Security, what they support is almost identical -- and mathematically impossible.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Social Security "a Ponzi scheme" and a "monstrous lie," but says that for people receiving benefits or those who will get them soon, he wouldn't change a thing. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney attacked Perry over the comments in the last two debates but has himself argued that Social Security should morph into a system of private retirement accounts for younger people, while older folks get to keep the current structure. Unfortunately for both men, that won't work.

Social Security has, since its founding in the mid-1930s, been a system in which each generation of workers pays the benefits of older retirees. We don't fund our own benefits, we fund our parents' and grandparents' benefits, and expect the same from our children and grandchildren.

If the contributions of young workers went into their own private accounts rather than the Social Security coffers, there soon wouldn't be any money left to pay current recipients.

There are more debates coming up, and Republicans will talk about Social Security plenty. It would be good if the conversation were rooted in real-world solutions rather than politically expedient but mathematically impossible fantasies.