American boomers support raising taxes on younger workers to maintain current Social Security payouts, poll shows — and the view is overwhelming

That accelerated depletion date is putting even more pressure on lawmakers to find a fix before benefits take a hit. But one potential fix has particularly strong support among older Americans: raising taxes on younger Americans.

In fact, an overwhelming 89% of Americans over the age of 65 said Social Security benefits should be protected at current levels, even if it means higher taxes on younger workers, according to a 2025 survey by the Cato Institute (2).

And it’s not only Americans aged 65+ who prefer this solution. Roughly 84% of those aged 55 to 64 preferred higher taxes on younger Americans, while 74% between the ages of 45 and 54 agreed with it as well.

That preference grows weaker among younger age groups, however, with 57% of Americans aged 30 to 44 saying current retiree benefits should be protected, while just 47% of those aged 18 to 29 years support it.

In other words, the closer Americans get to retirement, the more likely they are to favor protecting today’s benefits at the expense of younger workers — who will end up paying higher taxes to keep it afloat.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, workers on the other end of the age spectrum have another idea: benefit cuts. “Younger Americans are nearly eight times more likely than seniors to support benefit cuts to help solve the financial problems in the Social Security system,” Cato noted.

That divide comes at a particularly important moment. Social Security’s board of trustees say costs are expected to exceed its total income in 2026 and remain higher than income throughout the 75-year projection period.

With these numbers in mind, here’s a closer look at how this generational divide could impact your benefits and taxes.

The gerontocracy’s impact on your finances

Since there’s a clear generational divide over potential fixes to the Social Security system, the group with more political clout is more likely to get its way.

In 2026, the balance of voting power clearly tilts toward older Americans.

Older Americans are also more likely to turn out to vote than younger people, particularly when fewer people are casting ballots. That can give their preferences more weight when lawmakers are making decisions about programs like Social Security.

The median age of U.S. voters is 52, according to a column in The New Yorker (3). For primaries, the median age is even higher, at 62.

“The oldest voters ordain the choices for the rest of us,” according to the magazine.

That pattern isn’t new. Research on voter turnout has consistently found that older Americans are more likely to cast ballots than younger adults, particularly in midterm and primary elections (4).

This is also reflected on Capitol Hill. In Congress, the average age of representatives is 57.9, while the average age is 63.9 in the Senate (5). What’s more, the 119th Congress is the third-oldest Congress in U.S. history, according to Sen. Dave McCormick, with the average senator now nearly 64 (6).

President Donald Trump himself is 80, making him one of the world’s 20 oldest national leaders, according to a June 2026 analysis by the Pew Research Center (7).

That doesn’t necessarily mean older voters or lawmakers are deliberately trying to leave younger Americans behind. But it does make Social Security a tough problem to solve, especially when the people who stand to lose the most from benefit cuts are also among the most likely to vote.

“I feel like almost every economic policy is nothing but a thinly veiled transfer of wealth from the young to the old,” NYU professor Scott Galloway told Rich Roll on a podcast that aired in 2024 (8).

Social Security is a good example of that tension. Younger workers are still paying into a system that’s facing a growing financial squeeze, while retirees have a much more immediate interest in making sure those benefits don’t get cut.

However, there are ways to protect your wealth from this ongoing transfer and potentially higher taxes in the future.

Mitigating the impact

Social Security’s funding concerns impact everyone, but if you’re still years away from retirement and worried about steadily rising taxes, there are two ways you could mitigate the impact: planning and diversification.

Diversifying your income beyond regular employment could help you create a nest egg that isn’t impacted by payroll taxes. In fact, investment income usually gets favorable treatment when compared to employment income.

If you’re not sure where to start in your investment journey, a platform like Moby can help you learn from experienced investors about putting your money to work in the stock market. Moby offers expert research and recommendations to help you identify strong, long-term investments backed by advice from former hedge fund analysts.

In four years and across almost 400 stock picks, their recommendations have beaten the S&P 500 by almost 12% on average. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Moby’s team spends hundreds of hours sifting through financial news and data to provide you with stock and crypto reports delivered straight to you. Their research keeps you up-to-the-minute on market shifts and can help you reduce the guesswork behind choosing stocks and ETFs.

Plus, their reports are easy to understand for beginners, so you can become a smarter investor in just five minutes.

Diversify your portfolio with real estate

You can consider further diversification with some passive income from assets like real estate.