My advice to Millenials, or any other working Americans, in regard to retirement, is to learn how Social Security funds benefit payments and demand a revamp from their representatives that reflect the reality of a fiat currency.

#1 Even FDR understood that the payroll deductions from workers’ paychecks did nothing to “fund” their future benefit payments. The purpose of Treasury bonds, even those tracking Social Security, is to “remove” money from the economy. At one time, this protected the gold reserve when we did that nonsense. By moving a portion of the productivity of workers into the future their benefits could then be legally assured with bonds and new currency could be created safely to pay their benefits.

#2 Without a gold reserve to defend the entire concept of “saving” is defeated by removing such a large portion of wages from the working class and literally trashing it. Ditto for Medicare. Workers should be allowed to keep their entire earnings gained via productivity and, like every other civilized society, their retirement should be funded by the currency-issuing government. Any saving at the federal level is only an illusion accomplished by sleight-of-hand accounting and false rhetoric. The reality is that deductions from working-class wages destined to be deposited in the federal coffers only contribute to inequality and present a political football for the libertarian radical right-wing that the corporate wings of both parties serve.