Social Security
The purpose of this paper is to analyze social security so as to show the reader what makes it beneficial to us today. .
Throughout my life the words social and security have meant little more to me than the representation of a small blue card in my wallet, a consistent and increasingly significant deduction of funds from my weekly pay-check, and a vague academically-instilled recollection of the potential for long-term future benefit. In fact, it was not until I researched pertinent material for this particular project that I truly learned how markedly beneficial social security will be after my eventual retirement.
Reflecting on precisely how ignorant I had been to the issue prior to my investigation, I realized a tragic irony which exists quite commonly within our society today; young people are not taught to save for retirement.
I think that many of my friends do not even think much of saving for their college graduation, let alone for their retirement. Eventually, however, most of us will reach a point in our lives where work shall come to an end, yet the existence of living expenses will not. Social security, many of us find out; will provide us with a monthly check at this point. What we do not realize, however, is that this amount is not intended to be used as our sole source of income. Unfortunately, the tragic irony is that many of us reach retirement and realize too late how impossible it would be to live by no other means except social security. The reality is, that the program is but one benefit, one addition, and one financial supplement. Its intent is to be combined with other savings, IRA's, retirement funds and the like. Many senior citizens retire not fully realizing this and consequently, they are forced to seek part-time employment to supplement their income. This defeats the purpose of retirement all together. Since people often expect social security to pay for all or most of their living expenses, the disappointment that comes with retirement leads them to maintain negative feelings against the social security program which is actually at no fault whatsoever.
Once you have reached your retirement age you must notify your employer and the government agency responsible for paying you benifits. This is the Social
Security Administration. Arrangements must be made to carry private health insurance over into retirement, and applications must be filed for government health coverage. While social security is of great financial benefit to retirees, it must not be mistaken as a financial entity on which people can live without any other sources of income or savings.
The push for Congress to pass legislation protecting the rights of employees and their retirement was inevitable. Retirement plans are extremely important for all working individuals. Having funds to keep or exceed ones current standard of living and to enjoy one’s life beyond expectations after retire...
formulated an idea that would provide payments in the form of cash benefits for reducing
Throughout the 20th century governmental responsibility has made remarkable progress. One major milestone of the widening of the responsibility of the federal government was it’s making an obligation to care for the elderly and retired in the form of social security. In 1935, the Social Security Act was enacted by the federal government to provide financial security to the elderly, retired citizens in America. Although the federal government first took on this responsibility in 1935, it is still affecting our lives today. However, social security would not have advanced this far without many organizations and individual reformers to begin and improve social security throughout history.
If the products or services are over $40,000, it is still guaranteed if the products and services are for personal, domestic, household use only.
Each day that goes by there is a politician or journalist arguing about social security, the plans for saving it, and the repercussions of said plans. These topics are constantly flowing through newspapers, internet sites, online journals, and economic journals as well as many other forms of media. The major topic of discussion is the plan put forth by the current administration to reform social security, or more specifically, privatize it. There is no correct argument or correct opinion on how the situation with social security should be handled. Unfortunately, the government has the power in their hands to do with it as they see fit. Presented in this paper are numerous articles stating the condition of social security and specific problems with the way social security stands today.
Recent budget controversy in Congress and the media has once again brought to the forefront the pressing desire for fiscal responsibility in the United States Government. Although Congress came to a compromise over the budget in the proverbial eleventh hour, the extra attention afforded to the budget issue has reignited a lingering controversy: is the current system of transfer payment programs a financially viable one, or should these programs be recognized as an economic burden? As new waves of retirees stream into the system, it has once more become necessary to consider whether or not the U.S. Government can truly afford to keep the implicit promises it has made, and if the next generation to reach retirement age will see the benefits that it pays for current claimants to enjoy.
Michael Jones worked his whole life. At the age of 15 he started as a dishwasher at a restaurant a mile away from his house. He never graduated high school because he had to quit school to help his single mom support a family of six. There were many times in his life where he worked two jobs, but at minimum-wage, if that, 80 hours a week still did not go far. By the age of 20 he was married, and soon began to have a family of his own. Michael is a simple man but a hard workingman. Michael rarely took vacations, worked 60+ hours a week, and raised four daughters of his own. After about 25 years of marriage Michael and his wife divorced. Recently Michael turned 65, and against his desire to keep working, his doctor suggested that he retire, due to suffering from two heart attacks, one when he was 50, the other when he was 62. For 50 years Michael has worked many jobs, unfortunately, due to his limited education, he often worked minimum paying jobs. During the first half of this working life he was supporting his family, and Michael was only able to save for retirement after his children had graduated college. Only his latest employer offered pension plan. Now after working his whole life, Michael is left with $305 a month from his pension, and $742 from Social Security. Social Security has become his major source of sustainment. The Social Security Administration (SSA), has become a lifesaver for Michael and most retirees. This paper will attempt to answer how the Social Security Administration came to be, and what it does for the country and its hard working citizens. It will give a brief overview on the history of the administration; what statutes give the agency its authorities; ...
Driscoll, S., & Konczal, E. (2009). Social Security: Guide to Critical Analysis. Points of View:
live day to day as a means to survive, and only then would we truly
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.
22. Kennith Davis, "The Birth of Social Security," in Visions of America's Past, ed. William Bryans et al. (Plymouth: Hayden-McNeil Publishing, 2011), 327.
The fact is that a lot of Americans are uneducated when it comes to saving their money. Living hand to mouth and check to check is definitely no way to live, however a majority of Americans do in fact live like this. Most middle class and lower class Americans do not understand that putting all of there earnings in a checking account is actually not the best or safest idea. With the current low interest rates, you are actually losing money if you are fully invested in a money market due to inflation. Thi...
Social security, the federal retirement system, is one of the most popular government programs in United State?s history. Today, Social Security benefits are the backbone of the nation's retirement income system. The long road to the successful development of social security began in 1935. Before 1935, very few workers received job pensions. Those workers that were covered never received benefits because they were not guaranteed.
Social Security has played a major role in supporting the elderly as well as sick and disabled financially for many years. However, we do not know how long this will last their are many problems facing social security and the funding of it with the population continuing to grow more and more people are taking advantage of social security. The main problem is people who do not really need the help and free income of social security abusing it making the government actually spend more than they actually putting into the social security fund. In this paper I will not only discuss the problems surrounding social security but also solutions in which could not only help better social security but also make it available for generations to come.
In one of Kotlikoff’s analysis, he found that at the time of privatization, the initial elderly, or the older generation, being that it consumes more than younger generations, in terms of retirement funds, would have a large fiscal burden put on them, however, it will lower the fiscal burdens of future and younger generations, shortly after or at the time of privatization (Kotlikoff 270-271). As observed through simulations of how privatization would affect the U.S., Kotlikoff concluded that there are multiple ways privatizing Social Security can be beneficial. He states that privatization could cause major long-run increase in the total output and living standards of the nation, however compensations to initial generations at the time of privatization of Social Security would be required as the long-run gains from Social Security would come at their expense. Also, Kotlikoff wrote that under privatization, there could be a substantial efficiency gain in the U.S. (304). Kotlikoff also writes that since privatization of Social Security will remove many of the taxes that put burdens on the poor, it will likely improve the well-being of the poor in the U.S. (305). Other effects that privatizing Social Security would do is reduce individual dependency on the government