The phase out plan is doomed to fail. The reality of the situation is that most folks would choose having an additional 12.4% in their paycheck because their wages are so bad that they don't make enough money to live on, let alone save for retirement. They'd go through their lives, living paycheck to paycheck, never making enough to save for retirement (much like today). Under the proposed plan this leaves them with two options when they're in their "golden years" 1). retire and face certain poverty, 2) work until they die, if they are physically able to, if not, default back to #1.

Currently, the average income for US families ranges from 45K to 65K depending on which state you live in. With wages being flat since the Reagan administration, real purchasing power has significantly diminished while costs of things like medical insurance, cost of utilities, education, food, fuel have continued to sky rocket. Add to this the fact that outsourcing has reduced the number of jobs available, increased competition for those that remain and created a downward pressure on wages that are already flat. That means this group of people (and we are talking about 95% of the American public) will continue to lose money over time. That means no money left for retirement. It's a no brainer that this group will have no choice but to take that former 12.4% SS withdrawal in cash just to survive, leaving them with nothing for when they can no longer work. And you can bet that American business will call that 12.4% a pay increase and use it as an excuse to withhold 12.4% in future pay increases thereby negating any positive effect.

Unfortunately the authors phase out solution is just another clever way of ignoring the elephant in the room. Specifically, the vast majority of Americans are struggling to survive because their wealth has been transferred to uber rich corporations and wealthy individuals by scams that hide behind the euphemism of "free enterprise". These scams include deregulation of utilities, for profit health "insurance", 401Ks that pay the fund managers and financial houses FAR more than they will ever shell out to the investor, subsidization of multi-billion dollar multinationals who pay ZERO taxes to the US government (one in four). (http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/06/exxon-tax/), outsourcing, usury interest rates on credit card debt,etc. etc. etc.

In short ANY plan that doesn't include a genuine effort to create good paying jobs with a commitment to raise real wages for the majority of Americans to the point they can put some money aside for the future, is guaranteed recipe for disaster. Given that our illustrious supreme court is dominated by pro business conservatives I don't see anything close to this being done for Americans for decades to come.