Social Security: Retirement Problem’s and future
Social Security has been one of the most successful programs ever created, by the United States government. It was created around the 1930’s during the Great Depression. The program was designed to provide senior citizens with a retirement income, as well as disability pay for certain citizens, and also provide them with a sense of comfort of being taken care of in old age. However, because the program was created decades ago, certain issues have appeared and have yet to be resolved. There are several problems that must be addressed, and three of them stand out the most out of all; financial issues within the Social Security, demographic changes over the years, and the way in which the program
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The payroll tax is financed by ninety six percent of workers, and it is deducted from their income yearly from every paycheck received during that year. Until recently, more payments were collected than those needed for benefits. Due to the excess of money being collected, Social Security loaned it to the United States government, which was used for different things. In return, the government provided the program with interest bearing special bonds. The value of those bonds grew over the years to about two point eight trillion dollars in a trust fund. However, after many years of running an excess amount of money, Social Security now has a negative cash flow. “Many Americans think that money in the trust fund is not being invested wisely, many people are willing to consider privatization or alternative investment strategies for the same social security funds”, summarizes author …show more content…
Over the years the government has had to increase the retirement age to adjust for people having a longer life span; however, even though it makes sense that retirement age should be raised, it is not easy having to work almost until the age of seventy, life does not get any easier as one grows older. Meanwhile, parents are not having as many children, limiting the amount of new workers. Also, partially due to the baby-boom generation beginning to retire, the amount of beneficiaries of Social Security has grown at a faster rate that the number