Julie Voight English 111 POF Rachel Hartley-Smith

Current Social Security needs a drastic overhaul to maintain fairness and a return to its original intent

(The Great Depression) o Life savings were lost by the 1929 stock market crash o The Great Depression brought economic hardship, hunger and homelessness to millions of American families, especially the elderly o The need to support the elderly was the driving force behind the development of Social Security in what would be dubbed The New Deal by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1935

" FDR signing Social Security Bill," in CU Libraries Exhibitions, Item #346, edu/omeka/exhibits/sho/pe rkins/social- security/item/346 (accessed July 29, 2010).

o Social Security system’s original intent- protect average citizen against a poverty-ridden old age o Benefits set to begin at age 65 even though life expectancy was 61 years o Social Security-designed to ONLY support those that outlived life expectancy and could TRULY be thought of as old

o Can’t lose sight of original intent- keep elderly out of poverty, something it has done admirably As cited by Caldera, 2010

o Life expectancy has increased dramatically since 1935 o Life expectancy is 76 years today, but benefits are set to start at 65 for most, and as early as 62 for a reduce benefit o Full retirement age has not been significantly adjusted to reflect this suggesting changes should be made

CURRENT SYSTEM: PROBLEM OCCURS: o Social Security system is what you call a pay-as- you-go plan o Payroll taxes are collected from current workers to pay Social Security benefits to retirees o Less $$$ coming in each month than needed to pay benefits o Congressional Budget Office noted Social Security outflows exceed inflows in 2010 (Congressional Budget Office [ CBO], 2010, p. 15)

CURRENT SYSTEM : PROBLEM: o Current system is solvent; however the CBO (2010) says by 2040 the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted o Surplus has been lent to US Government o National debt $13 trillion and growing

Massive Debt Burden (Congressional Budget Office [ CBO], 2010)

o Life expectancy 15 years longer than in 1935 o Baby boomers born after WWII are starting to retire o Fertility rates down o By 2020, only 2.1 workers paying into system per beneficiary o System needs a worker-to-beneficiary ratio of 2.8 to function as pay-as-you-go (Young, 2010) Young, 2010

o Can’t ask workers to pay into system that will ONLY pay 80% of promised benefits to support current retirees in pay-as-you go system o Benefits need to be cut by 20% by 2040

Raise retirement age to 70 Shared reduction of benefits by current and future beneficiaries

o For the past 75 years, the Social Security system has been successful in helping the aging population and lowering poverty level o Possible solutions- raise retirement age and/or shared reduction in benefits o Come together and make a change, not 30 years from now

o Caldera, S. (2010, April). Social security: who’s counting on it? Retrieved from ‌ ppihttp://aarp.org/ ‌ ppi o Congressional Budget Office. (2010, July). Social security policy options (pp. 1-67). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from ‌ ftpdocs/ ‌ 115xx/ ‌ doc11580/ ‌ SSOptions_forWeb.pdf o Reyes, K. W. (2005, April/ ‌ May). Myths and truths about social security. Retrieved from ‌ english/ ‌ social/ ‌ AM/ ‌ 05AM_myths.html o Social security (US). (2010, April 1). The New York Times. Retrieved from ‌ top/ ‌ reference/ ‌ timestopics/ ‌ subjects/ ‌ s/ ‌ social _security_us/ ‌ index.htm o Young, M. (2010). Smaller families and increasing longevity threaten social security. Opposing Viewpoints. Retrieved from roxy.ivytech.edu/ ‌ ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve& tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ &source=gale&srcprod =SRCX&userGroupName=ivytech17&version=1.0 roxy.ivytech.edu/ ‌ ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve& tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ &source=gale&srcprod =SRCX&userGroupName=ivytech17&version=1.0 