When the Social Security Act was enacted by President Roosevelt, it was in order to help the millions of people adversely affected by the great depression. At that time the average life expectancy was just over fifty years. Fast forward to 2016 where the average life span in the United States is approaching eighty. There are still many people who believe that Social Security is Socialist in nature but would have to disagree with that. Deductions are taken from both the employee and their employer throughout a person’s work history and you must have compiled at least 10 years before you are eligible to receive payments. Of course, over the years it has expanded from simply being a “retirement plan”, to include several various assistance programs, but for this paper, I will be focusing on the primary plan, its problems and various solutions. …show more content…
The looming problem is Baby Boomers, those people born from 1946 to 1964. And while numerous members of that that generation tends to be overachievers and workaholics; they will be both ready, and to a great extent scared, to retire. They are scared since, as mentioned previously, they have been told for several years now that Social Security will run out of money in 2034. The truth is that Social Security still takes in more than it pays out, but soon that will change and the surplus will be used to pay beneficiaries. The year 2034 is supposed to mark the year that surplus runs out.
We are all putting money into a pot, and some of us aren’t using the money or the resources that we end up helping out. There are a lot of programs that are out there to help support lower waged workers or people that can’t find jobs. Some of these programs are food stamps, medicare, and lower income housing. Everyone helps pay for these things, but there are only a certain amount of people that can use them. If you make a certain amount of money and it is too high, then you don’t qualify for them, even though maybe it isn’t high enough to live comfortably. Retirement may not come as easy for the younger generation because of the fact that people are using the social security, and we may not have the amount that we need when we retire. How our society is set up, you almost get more taken away the harder you work, and for the ones that don’t make as much, get all of the
In America’s early days before the kickoff of industry, there was little need for retirement savings for a few key reasons. First of all, people were dying at a much earlier age; most people didn’t live past 38, whereas in 1900, 60 years of age was common for about 40 percent of the population and 15 percent experienced 80 years of life. Another reason for the irrelevance of social security in the 19th century and earlier was that people were usually living rurally on farms with extended families to take care of them. Furthermore, the Civil War also didn’t allow the government much economic room to consider providing a service such as social security. However, after the Civil War, pensions were a form of social security for civil war veterans that carried into their retirement. Unfortunately these pensions provided support for only a very small portion of the population; not even one percent of Americans received these pensions. Despite a much lower need for social security in the 18th ...
Social security was designed to assist constituents during financial hardship. The program insured non-Negroes who needed unemployment compensation, met retirement age requirements, or child welfare prevention programs. Despite its forward objective, critics’ perception of the social security program was depicted as legal thievery. M.A.’s candid retort to the government’s evasive program was simply to rape the pocket’s of the people. M.A. as well as others primarily prepared for retirement or a rainy day from stock returns. Contrarily, the social security program stimulated other economic restructures, which included limited full-time workers. The shift in the economy and Roosevelt’s failed promises created a wedge between the people and the government. For instance, Mrs. OM voices her views of President Roosevelt’s campaign as a misleading trick. She further explained
The original intention for creating social security was to act as a safety net for retirees, but as time past, there seems to be a great deal of economic issues relating to the program. Social security was created to help benefit retired workers, spouse and children of deceased workers, as well as workers who have become disabled before retirement. This insurance program provides retirees with a steady income once they retire. President Roosevelt signed the program into law on August 14,1935. Since then, social security has been beneficial for many workers and retirees. In fact, social security has become the main source of income for many retirees.
When we hear about social security we think of that number every adult and college teen should memorize as they venture on the real world. We don’t think any more of it and most people don’t know about the benefits of such a number and having one. Some migrants from other countries dream of being in America and having a social security so that they may reap the benefits of having such a number and becoming a US citizen, while most every day people just assume it’s a number. What social security is would be a program created back in 1935 and it was used to provide old age, disability, and survivors insurance and on top of that, a supplemental security income which is a income for the elderly and/or disabled people of these United States. Now lets say we privatize all that and therefore do what we did with healthcare, of course their will be good outcomes of doing such a move but where this is good, there will always be bad no matter how good something turns out to be. The stock market, pride, government, all of these are several factors that can be towards privatization of social security but also can be bad things about it as well. Without the government we lose order, with the government we have less freedom, with the stock market people could win, without the stock market (when it crashes) people lose, yin and yang, pro and con one cannot exist with out the other.
Social Security is a system that was set up in 1935 after the Great depression to help people get through tough times. "Social Security is now used by nearly 44 million Americans"(policy.com). Only people who payed into social security are eligible to collect when they retire. Many people think that they receive the money they pay in but that is not total true. The money that you pay in is used for the people that are receiving it now. "In 1950 there were 16 workers for every beneficiary; today there are only three workers per beneficiary"(policy.com). There is more money going into social security then coming out now. The extra money goes into a trust to be used when it is needed. By the year 2032 those numbers are going to drop. By this time most baby boomers will be retired and collecting social security. This will put a big strain on the funds. There will be more money going out then coming in. And it will not take long to use all the money that is in the trust. By the year 2034 they will only be able to pay 75 percent of the beneficiaries. "The projected average monthly Social Security benefit in 2032 of about 1,100 (in 1998 dollars) would fall to about $800, and would drop further in later years. Average benefits for low-wage earners would drop from $670 to $480"(www.ssab). Theses cut would effect the people just starting to receive benefits and those who are already receiving benefits. And with each year these benefits will decrease. As these benefits continue to decrease "the percentage of aged people living in poverty would rise"(www.ssab).Most people believe this is happening because of the baby boomers generation. There will be more people taking from social security then giving in. By the time my generation is eliable to receive social security there may not be any money to give.
Despite the retirement income crisis, Social Security should be expanded, not reduced. In Arthur Delaney’s article on the Huffington Post, Senator Bernie Sanders stated, “With the middle class struggling and more people living in poverty than ever before, we cannot afford to make life even more difficult for seniors.” A push to adopt CPI-E, rather than a switch to a “chained” consumer price index that cuts retiree benefits, would m...
Today, the future of Social Security is in the news again. The reason Social Security is of such concern is that the extremely large group of citizens born in the post-World War II period—the much-discussed baby-boom generation—is retiring. The generation that will take its place in the workforce is far smaller in proportion to the number of retirees, raising fears about the sustainability of Social Security. In the past, proposed solutions to the various problems facing Social Security aroused great debate. Each time, however, the arguments were stilled, repairs were made, and the system continued to fulfill its mandate. That uncertainty about the future has resulted in suggestions for change that range from minor adjustments to complete privatization of the ...
Social Security is on the verge of taking care of the baby boomers generation. This means that it will be paying more benefits than taxes it receives. In lay-man’s terms it means it will be spending more money than it is making. I think that you should pay into your own private retirement account for you to reap the benefits in the future. Not for you to pay into a cluster of workers money for current elders to benefit from. You need to take care of your own future and not rely on other people’s responsibility. “…people began to think retirement funding as a right…and so…started saving less” (Klay & Steen). That being said, people of a certain age should be “grandfathered” into this meaning, people of the age of say 40, still get the normal social security retirement money but anyone younger must start abiding this new reform. If you get married, keep paying into your own unless your spouse is not working. If that is the case then pay the same amount BUT put half into your own and half into your spouses. If the other spouse is working however, they should pay into their own account and you into your own.
Before the social security act of 1935 the support of the elderly was a “state matter”, the state held the power to regulate money that was given to the people. The elderly and physically disabled had to rely on their sates to implement programs to help them financially and most states during the great depression didn’t see this problem as a necessity. The Roosevelt administration caught this and created social security on a national level. “The social security act of 1935, an act which sought to provide general welfare by establishing a system of federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several states to make more adequate provisions” (SSA). The key word in the quote is “federal old age benefits” which means the...
Social security, since instituted in 1935, has kept many elderly people from running below the poverty line (Hosansky). In 2015, the Social Security Administration predicted that the funds would be depleted by 2034 (Max). This poses a serious threat to the living situation of future generations when they retire. Our elderly, by today’s standards, enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. They are able to retire and still make over one thousand dollars a month. Some people also have private pensions which allow them to live even more comfortably. But with social security funds running out, we must ask the inevitable question. Is it worth having social security anymore? Social security should be kept. One must never fully rely on social security. In addition
The existing U.S. population is over 315 million and rising. In the year 2030, 72 million Americans will be 65 or older, a 50 percent change in age demographics since the year 2000. The change is primarily due to the aging baby boomers, who were born at the end of World War II. Americans are living longer than ever befo...
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 contribute through payroll deductions, then get money back after you retire. Nonetheless, Social Security is a complex and intricate communal program. By design, Social Security involves massive subsidies from the next generation of retirees to the present, from single workers to married couples. Now that the gigantic post World War II baby boomers generation approaches retirement age, there is concern about the consequences it will have on Social Security. There are basically three options, we can do nothing and allow Social Security to run it’s course, revise Social Security, or consider privatization of the system.
Retirement is one of the most important crossroads we face in life. It involves a fundamental change in lifestyle, one that calls for a totally new outlook on how we approach each day. All our lives we have been conditioned to think in terms of saving for our retirement years. Society has created this mystique about this time in our lives when we magically transform into different people with different lives when really we are the same people with different day to day lives. According to Medina, (2012) planning for retirement isn’t a "walk in the park" because for many people, debts are high while income is low.
The birth of the social security program started as a measurement to implement “social insurance” during the great depression of the 1930s, when the New York stock exchange crash in 1929 America then slipped into economic depression with unemployment exceeded 25% so president Roosevelt’s sign the social security act to help the poverty rates among the senior citizen which exceeded 50%, since then social security has became increasingly controversial.