Social Security began as a promise to citizens of the U.S. as a means of income after retirement. Though the idea certainly had good intentions for our retired population, unfortunately many years later and unforeseen changes now have our country in economic uncertainty. The commitment made in 1935 by the U.S. to allow for workers to be taken care of during their retirement life after paying into Social Security seems to be quickly fading away. If some sort of reform of our social security plan is not decided upon in the near future our country will most certainly see a financial crisis along with the inability to provide payments to the recipients of social security benefits. Social Security in many peoples opinion is a socialist …show more content…
This issue has been known for some time. Numerous plans of reform have been proposed but have failed to address the issues enough to create a working solution. Social Security 's shortfall is so big that small changes don 't cut it. “Some say, for example, that we should raise payroll taxes just enough to make the system solvent, but this would have a major impact on average workers ' household budgets and would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, slow the economy, and take a bite out of household savings. Even worse, because of the way the Trust Fund works, higher taxes probably wouldn 't fix the problem and wouldn 't take future tax hikes off the table.” (www.socialsecurityreform.org). Even though we’ve known about the problems in Social Security, no president, until George W. Bush, has ever attempted reform Social Security. Unfortunately with little democratic support Bush was unable to achieve his goal. The Obama and Biden Change campaign agenda vowed to ensure Social Security was solvent and viable for the American people (www.change.gov). Former President Bush wanted to address the problems within Social Security through privatizing. Many versions of a privatized Social Security exists, but the most basic model has a proven solution to the current problems in our Social Security crisis. Many countries all over the world have already switched to privatized systems. Chile switched to a privatized system in 1981. Once installed, the new system promoted increases in pensions, income, national savings rates, and provided investment capital for the economy. It also decreased taxes, national debt, and the average age of retirement. The United Kingdom also implemented a partially privatized system in 1978. “Beginning in 1988, workers were also allowed to opt out of their employer’s plan or SERPS (State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme) by putting a tax rebate (like a carve-out) into a personal account.” (www.ncpa.org).