New Delhi, Sept. 13 -- Are America's Social Security benefits too generous? Some fiscal hawks and classic conservatives say the answer is 'yes,' and see the upcoming depletion of the trust fund as an opportunity to rein them in.

Social Security [or the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance programme, as it is officially known] was meant to be insurance against poverty, they say, not the sole source of income for middle-class retirement. The programme needs to institute benefit caps, means testing, or even a flat benefit structure to remain viable.

It is an interesting line of reasoning, to say the least. The current benefit formula was adopted in 1977 and was designed to keep the replacement rate of benefits-that is, the benefit ...