Essay/Term paper: The social security crisis

Essay, term paper, research paper:  American History

The Social Security Crisis


The Presidential election will be coming up this November and the
question that many of Americans have on their mind is what are you going to
about the Social Security crisis? This question has our nation divided between
generations. The elder people of our nation (ages 50 and up) fell confident that
Social Security will be there for them and that it should be left alone. On the
other hand the Baby Boomers (ages 31-49) and Generation X (ages 18-30) lack this
confidence fearing that they will never receive Social Security, and the money
they put in would be a waste. Many politicians are afraid to touch this issue
because the elder still make a large number of the voting block. Speaking as a
member it is our duty to vote for change in Social Security to ensure we will
have something to look forward to when we retire. We can not wait any longer to
defeat this crisis.
For those who don't know the Social Security crisis is the threat that
Social Security may go bankrupt. Well its more than just a threat its the
reality. The common belief is that Social Security is a saving fund where the
government takes a certain percentage out of our weekly pay. Then that money is
put into a savings fund where it is held until you retire. When they retire
money is returned to them in monthly checks plus the interest. This is where
they are wrong. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system where the current
workforce pays for the present retirees, and then when they retire they will
depend on the workforce and so on and so on. Which is fine when you always have
more workers then retirees. This is the problem the government will face when
the Baby Boomers retire in the year 2010. In 1950 there were 7.2 workers for
each retiree. Today there are 3.2 workers for every retiree, an by the year
2020 there will only be 2.4 or less for each retiree. By the year 2010-2015
Social Security is projected by the government to pay out more money than it
could take in. Since the current Social Security took in a surplus of $60
billion last year with a projected total to be around $5 trillion they will have
enough money to last another 10 years or so. All in all experts expect that
Social Security will have spent every penny it has by the year 2030