Christine Austin, 21, is worried that she won’t be able to retire. “I get $90 taken out of my paycheck every month and a lot of that goes to Social Security. But I may never see that money,” said Austin.

Her grandmother receives a social security check and uses every penny. Still, Austin thinks that many baby boomers might receive more than they need, using up more Social Security funds than younger, smaller generations can supply through taxes.

Austin, a senior at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., is among many young Americans who feel that with the current Social Security system, they will never receive the Social Security benefits they have been promised when they retire.

At a recent panel discussion on entitlement reform at the Heritage Foundation, Ryan Lynch, national director of Students for Saving Social Security, pointed out that young Americans will only receive 75 percent of the retirement benefits that they are promised. Young Americans are putting money into a system that they may never benefit from.

“One out of every eight dollars that we make is going into Social Security,” Lynch said. “This is money that we could be saving.”

Thus Lynch and Students for Saving Social Security advocate for personal retirement accounts.

The S4 Web site explains that with PRAs, young Americans could set aside a portion of their Social Security taxes, investing them in stocks, bonds and equities throughout their working life. By doing this they would gradually grow funds to prepare for a comfortable living once they leave the workforce.

S4 has 324 chapters in schools across the United States. Jo Jensen, executive director of S4, explained that college students are supporting the cause of S4 by writing letters and talking to their representatives in Congress. This, she said, affects the way legislators think about the issue. It also affects the young people involved in the process.

“Social Security is a stepping stone to other political issues for young voters,” she said. “Our first goal is to talk about the issue.”

Still, there are young voters who think Social Security is not in crisis.

Alexander Hertel, a senior fellow at the national student think tank the Roosevelt Institution, disagrees with S4. Hertel does not foresee financial trouble for young Americans supporting the elderly and retired through Social Security taxes.

“Current revenues, payroll taxes and taxes dedicated for pensions are more than sufficient to pay for all non-healthcare budget expenses, including Social Security benefits promised under current law,” said Hertel at the Heritage Foundation panel. “There is no entitlement crisis and it is deceptive and unproductive to call it such.”

Hertel said those who are calling for reform on Social Security are forgetting the “unique roll of Social Security in providing bedrock of retirement support.”

He cited Social Security and other entitlement programs as important supports for the most marginalized of society, including the poor and the widowed.

Nevertheless both sides called for "entitlement reform," each side recognizing that with the astronomical federal deficit and the current inconsistencies of different entitlement programs, the issue needs to be addressed. “We are the generation that is going to pay the price of either inaction or misguided reforms and as such we need to be vocal about our place at the table,” said Hertel.

Diane Lim Rogers, chief economist at the Concord Coalition and also present at the Heritage Foundation panel, expressed her view that people across generational lines should be a part of the discussion of Social Security.

Rogers said, “I think it's great that college students are getting involved on this issue, but I would encourage students to involve your parents and your grandparents and make it sort of a common good goal, rather than a ‘it's us against the older people’ kind of message.”

Christine Austin just wants to make sure she won’t be financially burned in the future. “I worry that our taxes are going to be raised a burdensome amount,” she said. “You want to have faith in a government program, but I have lost my faith in Social Security.”

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