Social Security And Economic Security

On August 14, 1935 in Austin, Texas, President Franklin D. Roosevelt inked his signature on the Social Security Act. It was originally implemented to resolve problems with unemployment, old age insurance, and public health and welfare. The Great Depression was the catalyst for the creation of the Social Security program, and the basic structure was very similar to Germany’s social insurance programs from the 1880s. Today, social security is mostly used for retired senior citizens starting at the age of 62. At 62, American citizens can begin to collect, but will only receive 35% of their monthly benefit due, rather than the maximum amount of 50% when they reach the full retirement age of 66. (cite) In addition, social security is dispersed to about 14 million disabled people under the age of 62, who can no longer work in the labor force for various reasons. The people who qualify as disabled are just a small percentage of those collecting compared to senior citizens, and are often not mentioned when social security issues are brought up because of their minute effects on social security distribution.

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

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

Notably, the elderly populace is growing rapidly, and will reach 3.4 million or 12.8% of the population. Eventually, in the next thirty years older adults will comprise of 20% of the total population due to the aging of 76 million baby boomers (Olson, 2001). Seeing that, entitlement programs and means-tested benefits, are presented, in order to bolster this increment of older adults. Accordingly, around 96% of the American workforce is secured by Social Security and it is likewise estimated that 58 million American will receive a total of $816 billion in Social Security benefits (Moody and Sasser, 2015). In fact, today 56 million or 17% of the population is enlisted in Medicare (Leonard, 2015). Therefore, this has presented an open deliberation about the eventual fate of Medicare and Social Security and regardless of whether changing Medicare and Social Security to means-tested benefits, instead of entitlement programs can resolve the policy issues.

Current problems with the Social Security fund exist, and are the reasons why Social Security is in the need of reform. According to Forbes Magazine, the fund is expected to run out by 2033 (Teal 2013). At this point, money will still be coming in, but will not pay out the full benefits to recipients. The worker to retiree ratio is continuously declining, being approximately three workers to every

Roosevelt and his Economic Crisis Committee, in 1935, came up with the simple idea of providing benefits to the generation of retired workers from tax money of currently working generation. Roosevelt put this straightforward idea into the system to make it work, and it surprisingly has worked out well so far. When the bill became a law in 1935, there were many people who were affected by the Great Depression and sought financial aid. Unlike the bank money that goes in loans and still depositor have access to the money; Social Security System passes out collected money immediately into benefits (“Social Security System”). This way, the working generation will always provide enough money to the fund. Rather than providing money from government fund, idea of benefiting citizens from their own money didn’t receive

14th August 2015 marked the 80th anniversary after President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in the year 1935. The program has been important in alleviating poverty amongst the elderly population. However, the system has started to how its age. The OASID (Social Security and Disability Insurance Trust Funds) is presently running on cash deficit as the baby boomers retire. The DI (Disability Insurance) program has been running on deficits for several uses and has been predicted to exhausts the trust fund. The social security provides important income security to millions of the beneficiaries but is on towards insolvency. Presently, the Social Security program pays more in benefits that it is collecting in revenue and has been projected that the trusts funds will run out in the year 2033 (Bernan Press, 204). At this instance, all the beneficiaries regardless of income and age will face an immediate twenty-three percent benefits cut. The longer term OASI would need more than a 4 percent point rise in the payroll tax so as to close the gap in funding over the next 75 years or benefits would have to be reduced below the promised 27 percent level by the year 2090 (Bernan Press, 2014). The focus of the paper is on the issue of solvency of social security fund

In good years, these revenues have outnumbered the claims laid to them, but it is clear that that period is coming to an end. The Baby Boomers – a massive population segment who, in their youth, contributed greatly to Social Security revenues – are now coming into their own as retirees, and will no longer provide the revenue that they did in their working years. Instead, they will be expecting at least a partial return for their years of labor and withheld income, in the form of retirement benefits. The program which will provide those benefits, OASDI, is one of the most costly under the banner of Social Security; its expenditures were propped up by the very generation that now seeks to claim from it. This will have a startling effect on the funding for Social Security. Indeed, the Baby Boomer generation may have been one of the reasons Social Security looked successful at all: because

Many argue social security pay to beneficiaries will become depleted by the year 2037 due to the modest working class. Solvency can be defined by the availability of assets to be payed in full to beneficiaries (The Future Financial). The Social Security Administration is a department of the Federal Government. It is responsible for retirement, disability, and survivor’s benefits. Retirement, disability, and Survivor benefits come in the form of monthly payments to beneficiaries. Income is based upon how much taxes a working class American pays into the program. The Social Security board of Trustees report on the total assets generated by the American working class. In addition to the dwindling working class, the ‘baby boomers’ will be leaving

Social Security is one of the largest domestic federal programs with the largest source of income for most retirees, and is relied by the most vulnerable people of society. However, the program is financially unstable for the upcoming decades to come. Estimates show that Social Security will be to pay Americans’ full benefits for the next 20 years, but after 20 years, future generations could be in trouble, and Social Security will not be able to provide benefits towards the American people. Specifically, according to a news article by, National Affairs, written by, Andrew Biggs, “A New Vision for Social Security”, “It is therefore incumbent upon today's policymakers to address Social Security's fiscal problems and to ensure

     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

B. Relevance Everyone is faced with the prospect of living their “golden” years without a paycheck. Social Security will very likely NOT be available to people currently younger than 40 and if it does survive will not be a

"On a daily basis senior citizens face a choice between buying food, paying the rent, or buying medicine. Senior citizens slice pills into halves because they can't afford

The Social Security System is in need of a new reform; our current system was not designed for the age stratification we have at this time. The U.S. Social Security Administration Office of Policy states, “The original Social Security Act, signed into law on August 14, 1935, grew out of the work of the Committee on Economic Security, a cabinet-level group appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt just one year earlier. The Act created several programs that, even today, form the basis for the government's role in providing income security, specifically, the old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs.” Social Security was modeled to aid the elderly citizens, however during the

Planning for retirement should not be based on Social Security alone, but rather by saving portions of personal earned wages and putting finances into long-term investments. Depending on Social Security as the only income after retiring is an unsafe and undependable way to prepare for retirement. People who contribute to Social Security are mandatorily putting money into the Social Security Reserve; this money is used for older generations that will file for these benefits before the younger people working, in the early 21 century, ever receive a chance. Money controlled by other’s hands will never be a guarantee for a secure future, yet money saved by an individual to put toward personal goals will reward greatly. By taking the time to