What's Happening to Social Security

Social security seems like a good idea, but it is steadily depleating. It looks as if there is enoung to last the current generation but the future looks dim for the coming generations. The main problem is that there are too many retired citizens collecting social security benefits compared to the number of working people paying into the funds. This could have been due to the past "baby boom" as many like to call it. There have been a few options to counteract the problem. One of the options is to allow people working to defer a portion of their payroll tax into a private account for them to use when they need the money. Either way something must be figured out, but Sen. Harry Reid says that we have up to about 50 years with our current situation. One of the other options is to raise taxes to pay for the deficite. But would a tax really be benficially to stopping the shortage? Could it have other negative effects?