This is Here Me Out. I'm Celeste Hedley. At the time of this episode's release, we are days away from a potential government shutdown again.

As is the case every time this happens, there are a few key issues that seem to derail all negotiations.

Chief among them, this time, funding for Israel, but one thing that doesn't seem to be on the chopping block is the perennial third rail of American politics.

Social Security.

About 10,000 baby boomers retire every day, and the ratio of taxpayers contributing to Social Security versus retirees who need it is shrinking.

So as the program rockets toward insolvency in its current form at least, let's talk about Social Security as it exists now. Is it really the lifeline

that's intended to be or is it funneling money away from people who need it?

These days you've got retirees that are generally wealthier than the people who are

funding their retirements through Social Security. It's a transfer of wealth.

Eric Baim of Reason magazine joins us to touch the third rail and argue for changes to Social Security.

Stay with us.

Welcome back to Hear Me Out.

I'm Celeste Hedley.

The Social Security Act was signed into law on August 14, 1935.

At that time, there were 7.8 million Americans who were eligible to receive benefits.

The first person to receive benefits was a woman named Ida May Fuller.

She received that first monthly check in 1940. She was 66 years old and her check was $22.54, the equivalent of $498 today.

Interestingly enough, according to the History Channel,

Ida was a staunch small government conservative,

and in the 1970s she went on record opposing Social Security payout increases.

When Ida died in 1975, she was 100 years old.

She had paid into Social Security a little less than today's equivalent of $550.

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