In 18 years, Social Security benefits could drop so that millions will not have the money to survive. On the other hand, it could not exist entirely. Social Security funds are sinking due to its history, its inability to obtain funds, and the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. To make a truly accurate evaluation of Social Security one must look at the past, present, and future of the program which is depicted in the following paragraphs through the program’s history, its costs, and finally possible solutions to improve the program.
History
The idea for Social Security began when the Great Depression was at a climax, leaving retirees in intense poverty. One of the ways that President Roosevelt helped to combat this great poverty is
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This allowed for the program to acquire funds that could be used if spending on benefits exceeded the income from taxes. Instead of being used as benefits, these funds were used to subsidize other government programs. In their place stands United States treasury bonds. According to Dr. Allen W. Smith, a professor of Economics at Eastern Illinois University, “Instead of this being a proud day for America, April 20, 1983, has become a day of shame (Smith).”
Costs
Currently, there are many concerns over the continued solvency of Social Security. Moreover, in 2009, when the output of funds exceeded the income, Social Security began “running in the red.” Owing to the fact that the worker-to-retiree ratio reduced to 2.8 workers per every retiree, over five times less than the 1950 ratio of 16 workers for every retiree. The change was a result of the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation (Wiley). Today, 14 percent of the population is age 65 and over, which is expected to increase to 23 percent by 2080. Likewise, the working population is 60 percent today, yet is estimated to be 54 percent in 2080 (Reznik). The result of this depleting fund is an estimated Social Security “death” by 2033. After 2033 only 77 percent of those benefits will not be solvent (Greszler). This is a huge fright to the 20 percent of current recipients that depend on Social Security for all
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
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
Social Security has been a very beneficial government program for elderly people, and those whom they support, when being an active member in the workforce is no longer an option for reasons such as old age, disability, or death. Destruction of the program, or worse, lack of the aid, would be catastrophic. Without it, it could leave many senior citizens that can no longer
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
"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
With the workforce in America decreasing due to hard economic times, there is no guarantee the money put into the reserve will sufficiently support a generation when it is time for retirement. Depending on Social Security to support a person financially when ready to retire, will leave that individual in even more of a struggle than the beneficiaries trying to survive in these earlier years of the 21 century. Social Security benefits represent about 41% of the income of the elderly; if there is not enough to support even half of the elderly’s financial needs now, there is no reason a younger person should depend on it alone for retirement (Dewitt, 2010) in the future.