Introduction In the essay, “The Social Security Problem,” published in Sticks and Stones and Other Student Essays, Max Moore addresses the complex issue of Social Security running out of funds. He also addresses the possible actions that can be taken in order to provide a solution to this problem. Moore targets different audiences that are either directly affected or in control of this depletion of funds. He uses credible evidence to support his claims while also approaching the subject in a balanced and unbiased manner. Moore wants Social Security to both raise the retirement age and raise taxes.
Summary
In “The Social Security Problem”, Max Moore discusses the fearful reality of Social Security running out of funds. He states that the U.S. Department of the Treasury predicts that Social Security funds will run out by 2041 and action must be taken in order to prevent this (134). In his essay, he explains how the depletion of Social Security funds are a result from a decreasing retirement age, decreasing fertility rate, and shrinking work force. These things contribute to an increased population relying on Social Security, an increased population of the elderly, and a decreased ratio of workers paying for those beneficiaries (135). Moore explains the proposal of George W. Bush to make Social Security partially privatized; allowing young workers to invest their retirement savings into their own account. This would result in people putting their retirement on the line in
The impact of all of these options are huge because they affect every American. The options provided here are the 6 biggest options when it comes to Social Security. Now that everyone knows what might happen, lets talk more about the when. In 2010, the amount of money coming in was to small to pay back to people. Interest from the trust bonds was collected to help aid in maintaining full benefits. As a temporary solution, shaving the interest off the bonds would have been a great fix, but the original problem still exists. Nothing has been done to balance the money in to money out ratio. Unless Congress makes some big calls, in 2020, the SSA will be forced to sell their bonds. With the interest already being collected, and now the bonds being sold, the amount of money earning interest would severely drop.
Our nation ensures social welfare through Social Security. However, the United States cannot ensure the welfare of its own welfare system. To save Social Security, Americans in general do not favor an increase in the payroll tax, a cut in benefits or an increase in the retirement age. Furthermore, Americans are relying upon Social Security as their sole source of income at increasingly alarming rates. Social Security is intended to supplement retiree income, not account for 100% of it. Through elimination of the potential options, that leaves one necessary action: invest the Social Security trust fund in the stock market.
In the United States of America, there exists a two-party system comprised of the U.S. Democratic Party and the U.S. Republican Party. Although these two parties have become somewhat neutral on many issues of national policy, each party has a unique perspective of how the ever-looming Social Security problem should be alleviated. First, the U.S. Democratic Party believes that in order to fix the Social Security problem, pension plans must be reformed and savings incentives must be expanded nationwide. Also, the U.S. Democratic Party has persistently argued against the recent idea of privatizing Social Security. On the other hand, the U.S. Republican Party believes the Social Security system is in need of much more drastic change. According to statistics provided by the official website of the Republican National Committee, "Under the current system, today's 30-year-old worker will face a 26% benefit cut when he or she reaches normal retirement age." Also according to the RNC website, "By 2041, when workers in their mid-20s begin to retire, the system will be bankrupt - unless we act now to save it." In order to fix this troubled system, the U.S. Republican Party believes that the only answer is privatization.
We could save the Social Security Program, if we engaged in some simple changes. There could be some slight changes in the retirement age area and in the Taxes area. According to the Article "Modest Changes Could save Social Security Program" written by Stephen Ohlemacher, he clearly stated that employees are 100% grantee for an full retirement benefit package once the hit the age of sixty-six. It will later rises to the age of sixty-seven for elders that was born in 1960 or later. In addition, employees are able to receive an early retirement at the age of sixty-two, although their retirement benefits would have been reduced (Ohlemacher). Some changes we can apply to the retirement age, is that we could slightly increase the retirement age until it reaches seventy in the year 2027, which would eliminate some shortfall in the program. Secondly, there should be a three-year increase in the early retirement age,
The New York Times article, Misguided Social Security Reform, discusses the proposed social security reform “chained” consumer price index (C.P.I) as an alternative to cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs.) The author explains why C.P.I. will leave retirees in a worse situation because it researches price changes for the general working population instead of taking into account that the elderly are not regular consumers who can adjust their spending as prices change. The elderly have lower incomes and also cannot be as flexible on spending due to their needs are not the same as the working class. The article offers excellent social security reform ideas that will protect the current retirees as well as future
For many years the social security program has been operating successfully. In recent times however, it is becoming apparent to some that social security is in need of reform. Their argument is that with the amount of people getting older in the next couple of decades, there will not be enough money left in the social security reserves to pay for everyone who needs it. That is why the idea of separating social security up into private funds has been brought to the attention of the American citizens. This idea of reform has been around for quite a long time; however it has been pushed on by pro reform supporters more in recent times because they think it is necessary for the
Debates over Social Security have been ongoing since its inception in 1935 until today. The trend seems to be toward an increasing percentage of the American public, across party and demographic lines, in favor of strengthening Social Security funding, and a willingness to pay more to preserve and even improve benefits. However, the trend towards privatization of Social Security is also on the rise. What is not clear is whether Americans favor privatization because of fears that the Social Security Trust Fund is living on borrowed time.
It’s a matter of either losing all that you have worked for and live in poverty when retired or allowing your hard earned dollars to grow and have a secure comfortable retirement. I believe that Social Security is a doomed Government Program and that Privatization of Social Security would allow for a more secure retirement plan for all Americans. Social Security was first created to help aging Americans in their senior years so they would not end up in poverty. Social Security was signed in as law on August 14, 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was fully operating by 1940 (SSA). Originally a retirement program, but Social Security now includes survivor benefits, disability benefits and Medicare and all together is the largest
By looking at the ratio of young to elder citizens at that time, idea of providing benefits to retirees from young employees’ taxes was logical. Only thing that Roosevelt was unaware of was the period of “baby boom” that was going to create trouble in the future with providing benefits. With the retirement of “baby boomers” in around 2018, real crisis will start for Social Security Administration with providing higher amount of benefits from lower amount of incomes.
It’s a matter of either losing all that you have worked for and live in poverty when retired or allowing your hard earned dollars to grow and have a secure comfortable retirement. I believe that Social Security is a doomed Government Program and that Privatization of Social Security would allow for a more secure retirement plan for all Americans. Social Security was first created to help aging Americans in their senior years so they would not end up in poverty. Social Security was signed in as law on August 14, 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was fully operating by 1940. Originally a retirement program, but Social Security now includes survivor benefits, disability benefits and Medicare and all together is the largest
Established by the federal government in 1935, the social security system is currently one of the most costly items in the federal budget. The purpose of the system is to provide for Federal old-age benefits, and to enable social insurance and public assistance. The proposal of moving to an entirely new system would give the people living in the United States their own individual authority of controlling their own investments. If social security does not become privatized; the system itself will turn unsustainable, the retired and disabled will not fully receive their earnings; and the people of the United States will continue to have no control over their investments.
The Social Security Act of 1935 was passed in order to provide for elderly citizens who could not provide for themselves. Through this system, working citizens would pay into the system to provide for citizens aged 65 and older, and then when they reached the age of 65 they would be cared for as well. This system continues today, but as the life expectancy of citizens increases, many wonder if the Social Security cut off age should be raised to 70. It should. The fact of the matter is that the average 65 year old does not need their social security check in the way they did in 1935, so the system shouldn’t be wasting its finite resources caring for them.
There is much-heated debate on the issues of Social Security today. The Social Security system is the largest government program of income distribution in the United States. People are concerned that they won't see a dime of what they worked so hard to contribute into the Social Security system for so many years. Social Security provides benefits to about forty-three million Americans. Not only to retired workers, but also to their spouses and dependents of the workers who die prematurely. It also provides benefits to disabled workers and their dependents. Social Security appears to most people like a simple retirement saving’s account. After all, you generally
Many Americans believe that the social security program will face a crisis in this century because of funds running out. The fear of the people is that he government’s funds will be bankrupt when those people try to retire. Already a quarter of most Americans believe that they will receive no benefits from social security; what can we do about the social security problem? The reason that the problem is occurring is because of pay-as-you-go financing, demographic changes, the adoption of wage-indexing of the benefit formula in the 1970s. Due to the baby boomer generation, there are more americans retiring than ever. The younger generation has to pay for the older people retiring, but the problem is that there are less young people entering the
(5) Currently SS funds are collected and distributed on a pay - as - you -go (PAYG) system in which Social Security taxes from individuals are immediately distributed by the means of the SS Administration as it sees best fit. This means that taxes collected are not reserved for the individual who has paid them: in Rose 2 the current state he or she must rely on those persons paying SS taxes during the time of their retirement (Becker). For a number of these characteristics and future issues, the Social Security System must be reformed or completely abolished to meet the needs of tomorrow. The leading concerns of Social Security that merits the immediate initiation of reform are the demographic and economic circumstances in the coming century. Even though "forecasting the economy and budget over such a long period is uncertain" there remain many "certainties" regarding problems facing Social Security in the first half of the 21st century (OMB, Budget Perspectives 23). The Federal Government's responsibilities extend well beyond "the five- or six-year window" that has restricted the focus of recent budget analysis and debate. Of these "certainties" are the mounting challenges posed from the baby-boomer generation. This generation, born in the years after World War II, is aging