Rather than sit back and play the passive victim to some future sequence of elections, millennials have come to the same conclusion all younger generations eventually come to: "Screw this, I'm doing it myself." 

A recent survey indicates 64 percent of millennials feel Social Security won't be around by the time they retire (for those of you counting, the millennials will start retiring around the year 2060). Sure, there may be a program labelled "Social Security" in existence then, but no millennial in their right mind assumes it will be the same as their father's (let alone their grandfather's) Social Security. The bottom-line for millennials is, when it comes to planning their own retirement, they just can't count on Social Security. As a result, they've added together their realization that neither the government nor somebody else's business will look out for their own best interests; thus, they've accepted they are the best ones to watch out for themselves. 

Such an independent streak! It reminds me of their 1980s counterparts. That was the decade when rugged individualism and self-reliance ruled. It was a time when young whipper-snappers shrugged off any dependency on corporate pension plans and embraced the self-reliance afforded by the opportunity of the 401(k). It was an era that spurred entrepreneurialism and, though at times short-lived, brought riches to many willing to take a chance on themselves and their own ideas. Many of these riches ended up in 401(k) accounts and IRAs, producing, all across the nation, what have become today's retirement plan millionaires. Incidentally, and perhaps food for thought, this grand capitalist experiment defeated a totalitarian regime without firing a single shot and spawned one of the greatest periods of economic prosperity our nation has ever seen. 

But that older generation failed miserably at the one golden opportunity it had. In 1983, with Social Security on the cusp, political leaders agreed on a patchwork — not a solution. As a result, instead of forever ridding our nation of this Ponzi scheme, it shackled one more generation — the baby boomers — to its forbidden fruit. Today, what modern day "Biff" wouldn't want to go back to the 1980s and tell his younger self to spurn Social Security and put all that payroll tax money into a private 401(k) account? In a sense, the politicians of the 1980s pushed the problem down the road for some future generation to deal with. 

That future generation may just be the millennials. They're on the right track. Do they have the guts, the confidence, and the fortitude to force their elders to make the right decision? 

Ask me in 30 years.