Public Agenda Issue Guide: Social Security

Citizens

are confronted with serious issues every minute of the day. Grasping the underlying issues from the headlines is a difficult task. Give us ten minutes a day and we will help bring clarity to the chaos of the news, policy and issues.

ON THE AGENDA

Government Agency Reports Greenhouse Emissions Up Last Year

Jenny Choi
Dec 4, 2008

Greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. were up by 1.4 percent in 2007, after a decline the previous year, according to newly released figures in a report from the Energy Information Administration, the statistics arm of the Energy Department.

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Priced Out Of Prosperity?

Paul Gasbarra
Dec 3, 2008

The picture was grim this week as the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released a report predicting that a college education could soon become unaffordable for most Americans. In the past 25 years, the cost of college has increased by 439 percent. [The New York Times notes that this figure is not adjusted for inflation.]

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ISSUE GUIDE: Social Security

OVERVIEW

Social Security

Social Security, the nation's retirement system, is one of the most popular government programs in U.S. history. But now that the first of the 76 million baby boomers have started retiring -- and are projected to live longer than any previous generation of Americans -- the question is how this program can be sustained.

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CONSIDER THE CHOICES

Keep Social Security intact

Redefine the contract to make Social Security sustainable

Put Social Security taxes in private sector investments

Make economic security in retirement a personal responsibility

To ensure that Americans are able to retire with security and dignity, government must keep Social Security intact. Even if it requires raising taxes or reducing spending on other government programs, the promise of income security in retirement years must be honored. It is immoral and unthinkable to arbitrarily reduce benefits to older Americans because of the pressures created by a large number of individuals in the baby boom generation. In any case, maintaining this program over the long run requires only modest adjustments of revenues and expenses.
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Flaws in Social Security can't be fixed with a little tinkering. To avoid stark choices early in the next century including sharp hikes in taxes and reductions in other government programs significant changes must be enacted to meet the needs of future retirees. The demographics of the baby boom generation and the smaller generation that follows it require pared down benefits and revised eligibility rules. Commitments to older Americans must not jeopardize other public needs. We will have to trim benefits, especially to those who need them least, and reverse the trend to early retirement.
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Social Security benefits shouldn't be drastically altered, and retirement income shouldn't be made a personal responsibility. We should focus on finding a way to pay the benefits to which recipients are entitled. The key to making this program financially secure is to get higher returns on the taxes paid into Social Security. Rather than investing taxes in low-yield government bonds, the federal government should invest Social Security taxes in the private marketplace to increase the yield.
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Social Security is fundamentally flawed. Modest reforms won't be sufficient to provide financial security for future generations of retirees. The Social Security Trust Fund should be replaced by mandatory personal savings accounts, which make individuals responsible for their own financial security in retirement. Mandatory personal savings accounts would either wholly or partly replace the current system, putting responsibility for retirement security where it should be, on each of us individually.
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