1. Julie Voight English 111 POF Rachel Hartley-Smith

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

3. (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

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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. 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

15. o Caldera, S. (2010, April). Social security: who’s counting on it? Retrieved from http://aarp.org/ ‌ ppihttp://aarp.org/ ‌ ppi o Congressional Budget Office. (2010, July). Social security policy options (pp. 1-67). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www.cbo.gov/ ‌ ftpdocs/ ‌ 115xx/ ‌ doc11580/ ‌ 07-01- SSOptions_forWeb.pdf o Reyes, K. W. (2005, April/ ‌ May). Myths and truths about social security. Retrieved from http://www.aarpsegundajuventud.org/ ‌ english/ ‌ social/ ‌ 2005- AM/ ‌ 05AM_myths.html o Social security (US). (2010, April 1). The New York Times. Retrieved from http://topics.nytimes.com/ ‌ 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 http://find.galegroup.com.indianapolis.libproxy.ivytech.edu.allstate.libp roxy.ivytech.edu/ ‌ ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve& tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010685208&source=gale&srcprod =SRCX&userGroupName=ivytech17&version=1.0 http://find.galegroup.com.indianapolis.libproxy.ivytech.edu.allstate.libp roxy.ivytech.edu/ ‌ ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve& tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010685208&source=gale&srcprod =SRCX&userGroupName=ivytech17&version=1.0 