A couple of years ago, I wrote an opinion column for the Concord Monitor titled “Goodbye Retirement.” I documented all of the reasons I believe I’ll never live a day in retirement. It got some attention, including a rebuttal from AARP.

Since that time, it seems that I continue to be proven right.

In case you were distracted by yet another war in the Middle East, just recently the Social Security Board of Trustees announced the trust fund will be depleted by 2033. It had been previously estimated to make it until at least 2036. Some folks like to say Social Security is our money, but that isn’t true. The government steals your money and gives it to someone else. If you are collecting it now, the government is stealing someone else’s money and giving it to you.

All you can do is hope the government continues the cycle of theft. The problem is that, like all Ponzi Schemes, they eventually run out of money. That is what is going to happen in 2033.

According to the Social Security Administration, in the 1940s there were 41.9 workers to every retiree. Today that number is 2.8, and it only gets worse. Deporting thousands of workers without a criminal record isn’t going to help. Our government needs to act to prevent the collapse of Social Security.

The problem is our government excels at two things: bombing countries in the Middle East and kicking the can down the road. The Trump administration isn’t going to fix this. Whoever wins in 2028 isn’t going to fix this.

Social Security will become a crisis, and the government will have three options. It can raise taxes, it can raise the retirement age or it can decrease benefits. My money is on the government will raise the retirement age. It will raise the age to a level where I and my fellow Generation X-ers will be six feet underground before we qualify.

For my generation, retirement will be like going to Blockbuster to rent a video. A lot of people did it. A lot of people liked it, but it just doesn’t happen anymore.

The really neat part is my generation will have paid 6.2% of our income for decades just to get the short end of the stick when we hit our 60s. I’m not even mad I won’t get Social Security. I’m mad the government stole 6.2% of my income for decades when I could have invested that money in the S&P 500 and gotten a 500% return.

Instead of tending to a garden in my golden years, I will die on the floor of some warehouse or Dollar General. My only wish is that I die at the start of my shift. If I work a full shift and then die, I’ll have some words for Saint Peter at the pearly gates.

Goodbye, retirement you will be missed.

Adam Czarkowski works as a product manager in the technology field and lives in Penacook.