Preview

Is the Social Security System Broken?

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1585 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Is the Social Security System Broken?
Is the Social Security System broken?
Problems with the Social Security System

Problems with the Social Security System

The Social Security System, created in 1935, is the one of the most costly items in the federal budget today. The program was created to provide old age, survivors’ and disability insurance to a large portion of Americans, mostly the elderly who are now out of the work force. The Social Security Act was a major turning point in American history (William, 2007). Today the U.S. Social Security system has been in the news a lot lately. While politicians throw around dramatic words like “crisis” and “bankrupt,” regular Americans have more mundane concerns. Social Security has assisted to defend millions of employees from scarcity in their elder years, but demographic truths have transformed over the last seventy years and are still altering. (Smith, 2010)
If Social Security does not transform with them, the system will be incapable to fulfill its guarantees to tomorrow’s retirees and will load the next generations, our children and grandchildren, with hard taxes. The President would let Americans save some of their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts that they own and that Congress can never legislate away. Personal retirement accounts would strengthen Social Security by assisting all US citizens to raise their retirement income and pass on a nest egg to construct a better fiscal future for their households. (Smith, 2010)

Several Social Security professionals think the system is in crisis because it will soon be incapable to fulfill its guaranteed distribution payments to qualified retirees (Koitz, 2003). Republicans and Democrats tend to have extremely different concepts not only about how the Social Security system should encounter this disaster, but they also vary considerably on how the regime should address personal retirement requirements.
Social Security is financed by the payroll taxes of existing



References: William, J. (2007). Social Security System. New York: The Free Press. Smith, D. (2010). “Issues with Social Security System.” New York: Thomson Gale. Koitz, David. (2003). Social Security Reform. California: Hoover Institution. Zeleny, Jeff. (2009). Social Security System. New York: Routledge.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Social Security implemented during the aging nation and is still necessary today based on the savings rates of baby boomers and the future of private pension plans. Boomers tended to think of themselves as a special generation, very different from those that had come before. Boomers need social security today, as well as during the aging nation because of there retirement. During the aging nation, baby boomers retirement became a public concern because of the budgetary pressures that developed when baby boomers began to collect Social Security and Medicare benefits. The future private pension plans weren't accumulating enough private…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The reality of a failing Social Security system depends on which governmental agency or media personality to which you listen. There is no consensus on just how large or small an issue it is. According to testimony from Michael Tanner (Director of Health and Welfare Studies, Cato Institute) before a Senate Special Committee On Aging, there is great need for concern. The Social Security System's Board of Trustees reported that the retirement system will be insolvent by 2029, down from 2030 in last year's report. This represents the eighth time in the last 10 years that insolvency date has been brought forward. Mr. Tanner recommended that Social Security be privatized due to the reckless manner in which the fund has been handled. Under the current plan, workers will receive far below market return on their contributions, giving credibility to the argument for privatization. Other factors he listed as weighing against the current system were that “Life expectancy is increasing, while birth rates are declining. As recently as 1950, there were 16 workers for every Social Security beneficiary. Today there are only 3.3. By 2030, there…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Padm 500

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Social Security Administration is sometimes predisposition depending on the prevailing circumstances. Specifically, policy changes are not taken into consideration by the Social Security Administration. At the Social Security Administration, policy are given priority rather than the concerned and welfare of the citizenry. System theory may be used by the Social Security Administration in term of inclination to experiment with new comportments and to adopt those mechanism that seem to be more effective and pragmatic. The SSA obviously exercise no lenience, it focuses more on policy than the welfare and sentiments of the citizenry.…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    “If the Social Security system is further weakened, the elderly will have to fear poverty. Therefore, if the Social Security system is…

    • 995 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Initially it was met with criticism by Roosevelt’s opponents in Congress. “A Republican senator from Delaware claimed that Social Security would "end the progress of a great country and bring its people to the level of the average European." As of 2013, Social Security costs account for 37 percent of federal expenditures, and is one of the largest social programs in the world. Its primary tenet is essentially the redistribution of wealth via governmental collection, to the poor; making Social Security nearly entirely a socialist…

    • 1529 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Social Security Act of 1935, enacted during President Franklin D. Roosevelt, has become a third rail in today’s American society. By third rail, various scholars explain that if a politician these days were to try to alter or change the structure of the law dramatically, then they could essentially destroy their political career. One must understand how the United States gained this transformative law through our country’s history, both the official and non official actors involved in enacting the act, different alternatives to the policy, how it was implemented, and the changes it has faced since 1935. Every step taken from the emerging issue that brought the Social Security Act to life, to the controversies it faces today; have to be…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    If we were to socialize medicine it would give the government control over our healthcare system, and ultimately this will result in raised taxes, longer wait times, and a decrease in the quality of care given. It will create no competition within our health care system that currently enables us to access the best quality of care in the world. Socializing medicine will also cost money, and with the state that the US economy is currently in, it will not be a good idea to add billions of dollars to the deficit.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    That 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, programs expansions to include people with disabilities, and other added benefits have made the program much more expensive and put Social Security in jeopardy of being financially unstable.…

    • 1917 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    04.05 Uncle Sam's Toolbox

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Should Congress continue to support social security? Absolutely! I think that the government should continue funding social security, because for some people that’s the only thing they can rely on as their source of income, if they stop funding social security then millions of people have no way of surviving then they have to go with their plan B which is go to other welfare programs like food stamps, etc. If they turn to other welfare programs doesn’t that mean it would cost the government even more money? Social security provides a source of income for people who doesn’t get enough benefits or people who have retired. I think this program is very advantageous and should continue to support and funding it if they don’t then millions of people have no ways of surviving, and increase poverty even more. Most people don’t know the history of social security, who created it, when it was created and why it was created. Well social security was created in 1935 and was signed into a law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression when impecuniousness rates among senior citizens exceeded by 50%, they decide to do something about it, and created the social security at first it was called the “social insurance”. We can never insure one-hundred percent of the population against one-hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life. But we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age. This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built, but is by no means complete.... It is...laws that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness” A quote from our beloved president Franklin D. Roosevelt. People, who are retired, disabled or cannot provide for themselves benefit from this as a…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Medicare Part D

    • 2145 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Slaughter, L., M.P.H. (2006). Medicare Part D – The Product of a Broken Process. Retrieved on…

    • 2145 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Two types of changes to Social Security have been proposed. One would keep the current defined-benefit structure but build and maintain a larger trust fund, to be partially invested in stocks and corporate bonds. The other would set up individual funded accounts, also to be partially invested in private markets. Both would raise taxes or lower benefits in the near term to increase funds for paying future benefits.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social Security provides a safety net for the nation’s poor and needy. Changing the system would cause a reduction in benefits and many people would suffer as a result.…

    • 2923 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Social Security is already has a $12 trillion dollar unfunded liability and it is foreseen that the number is only going to grow with time (Social Security PRAs). Even people who are retired cannot solely rely on their personal Social Security benefits. I have done two interviews with two retirees. Jerry Weinburger (personal communication, July 2nd, 2010) who retired 10 years ago is 72, lives on his own, pays all of his bills and is fairly happy. He does receive Social Security benefits. I asked him how much money he receives in…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fiscal Policy Paper

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The future Social Security and Medicare users will be impacted by the United States’ deficit, surplus, and debt. The United States’ surplus can be beneficial for the future of Social Security and Medicare because it provides additional funds into the funds that are already available. However, this is not the same with the deficit and the debt. As the deficit and the debt increases, more funds are borrowed from these trust funds, which are eliminating any surplus. Before long, funds for Social Security and Medicare will be exhausted, and the programs will no longer be able provide help to the disabled and elderly.…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    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 significant amount to live on. How we prepare NOW can determine whether we are world travelers or Walmart greeters.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays