Social Security And The Welfare System

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

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.

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

The US welfare system started back in the 1930’s when the great depression was going on. In 2012 more than 30 percent of households headed by an immigrant. The people who are mainly on welfare are the people who are sick and disabled and have little income, a big family or who come from out of the country. The government provides each state with their own welfare programs called temporary assistance for needy families (TANF). There are many different types of welfare programs in the US like, heath care, food stamps, child care assistance, unemployment, cash aid, and housing assistance. All of these types of welfare are controlled by the government and the state in some kind of way.

After its passage on August 14, 1935, Franklin Delano Roosevelt regarded the Social Security Act as “a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means completed” but whose purpose is to “take care of human needs and at the same time provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.” The very opposite of soundness, however, was achieved. Today, looming deficits and abuse of the program have left it the focus of many debates. At their conclusion, the discussions generally only point toward making it more difficult to receive the money you put in, back, and raising taxes drastically on those still working to provide benefits for the disproportionate amount of retirees. Its problems are vast, but a permanent solution has yet to be decided. Far less discussed, however, is if the program itself is worth saving. Because of

Social welfare programs are when society organizes efforts to meet some human needs. In the United States social welfare philosophies have changed throughout the years, and support for social welfare has gone both ways.

Social security is a federal insurance program that provides benefits to retired people and those who are unemployed or disabled. Social security is, in other words, earned benefit with dedicated funding from payroll contributions paid by workers and their employers, known as the FICA tax. Generally, to be covered a worker must have worked for long enough; recently enough, and earned enough to have sufficient FICA credits, typically about 10 years. Benefits are based on the worker’s earnings history and are generally modest, averaging a little over $1,100 per month for all beneficiaries. There are three types of social security: retirement, disability, and survivor insurance. Social Security does not cover some state and municipal employees and those who are self employed. It also does not cover some foreign workers admitted temporarily to the United States. Most workers who are not covered by social security contribute to other retirement and disability funds. In recent years, there has been a study that shows America will soon not be able to pay for social security and essentially will have to give it up; however, there are also many ways to prevent from the supply of social security from running out, but some people may have problems with them. Raising income tax, taking away benefits, and having to risk paying for retirement even though they may not receive as much as they invested.

There are a lot of opinions on how or even if social security will exist in the future. In past years, leading to today there have been many issues, causing everyone to worry about the future funding of social security. The federal government needs to make changes on how social security is being handled before it is to late and no retirees will be getting social security benefits. Below I discuss several options that have been proposed to help the Social Security Trust Fund to get back to being stable.

The deficit of cash flow for social security was $55 billion in 2012 (Boccia). Between 2015 and 2018 the Trustees project that the deficit will average at about $76 billion and is expected to skyrocket after that (Lew). For a period of time, social security was running a surplus, where it was taking in more income tax than it was handing out in benefits. The US Treasury credited with a special issue trust fund to put this money into. Many other government programs have borrowed this money that social security loaned out. But since social security has had a deficit it has been forced to use its trust fund to pay for the benefits. Even though the trust fund is $2.7 trillion, it is expected to be exhausted in 2037 (Lew). After the trust fund is exhausted, the only money that social security will have to use is the money flowing in from income taxes, but this will only cover only 76 percent of the scheduled benefits.

Historically, Social Security has been able to run a surplus; more funds were brought in via FICA taxes than was paid out as benefits [6]. However, since 2010, the program has been instead running a deficit ranging between $45 and $73 million between 2010 and 2014 [6,7]. So far this has been okay; in the years when Social Security ran a surplus, the excess money was saved into the Social Security Trust Funds: the overhead term for the OASI and DI Trust Funds, financial accounts managed by the Department of Treasury. The trust funds

Those who deny a Social Security crisis cite the pessimistic projections by the Social Security Trustees (Biggs, 2001). Deniers believe that if the projections were corrected to reflect a realistic view of economic growth, Social Security would appear as a healthy, sustainable program (Biggs, 2001). In addition, deniers believe that even if the Trustees’ projections are completely accurate, the deficits of the programs would be easy to afford (Biggs, 2001). With the National debt soaring and economic growth stagnating as is has for the past few years however, people must consider how many more deficits the country can reasonably afford. Individuals should also consider not only if the Social Security system is salvageable but also if it is worth saving. The promise of Social Security was to provide some income in retirement, but questions certainly exist as to whether or not the program will still be able to fulfill that promise in the future.

Eventually everyone wants to retire. In order to do that we need to make and save enough money to live on, but not everyone has the luxury of having financial stability. Since the mid-1930s, the government has tried to ensure that everyone should at least have some income after leaving the workforce. This plan is known as Social Security. Initially created during the New Deal, it was a compassionate program to help prevent elderly people from being destitute and was founded on a sound economic model. However, the government’s failure to predict life expectancy and demographic changes, program expansions to include people with disabilities, and other added benefits have made the program much more expensive and will eventually put Social Security

For the past 78 years, one governmental system’s benefits have been essential to the nation’s elderly and disabled individuals. This system itself has focused on providing benefits to every American when they reach the age of 65, or earlier than the age of 65 if they preferred to receive smaller amounts of benefits per year (Social Security Administration). The system, at the same time, has taxed citizens and companies to levy this distribution of benefits. This system may seem to be a great idea; however, the trust fund has been ever decreasing with no end of this decrease in sight (Economist Briefing). This system –Social Security – is in grave danger of running out of funds and needs to be reformed immediately.

“All peoples throughout all of human history have faced the uncertainties brought on by unemployment, illness, disability, death and old age. In the realm of economics, these inevitable facets of life are said to be threats to one 's economic security”- (www. ssa.gov). The 1935 Social Security Act was a giant step towards creating an economic security for the nation. However, as a person who has yet to be in the work force for 10 years I have already begun to realize that my comfort in retirement cannot rely on government funding, there are those whoever, who will rely entirely on that funding. Due to the differences in people’s willingness to take their futures under their own control, I would suggest reform in the fashion of partial privatization. Without this reform Social Security will not survive into the 21st century.

The Social Security system, the people’s retirement system, is running out of money and it is time for it to be privatized. Since being created in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, people have grown more dependent on Social Security for their retirement and the system can only be sustained for so long. In a 2015 Gallup poll, 46% of those polled said they “personally worry about the Social Security system.” The same Gallup poll also found that 36% of retirees expected Social Security to be a “major source” of their income in retirement. People are worried with good reason. The current system cannot sustain itself.