How to fix Social Security

How to fix Social Security

I have been listening to many people and reading many articles and papers on the subject of Social Security. I have come to the conclusion that this subject is just too volatile and too politically incorrect to speak honestly if you are a member of Congress, Senate or the White House. With that being said, I am going to try and address this very sensitive subject without bias, prejudice or personal connection. My purpose here to try and come up with a alternative to the Social Security problem without causing unnecessary harm to the present recipients nor to the future generations that are now coming of taxpaying age.

Before we can go on to fix the problem that is Social Security, we must know how Social Security came to be, what happened to its original intent, where the system started to go wrong and finally, what can we do to fix it. These are all parts of the same problem but as you will see, the problem is far from unsolvable. Rather, I believe not only is it feasible to fix the problem that is Social Security, but it is in the best interest of both the Country and the citizens of this country to do so as in a timely manner as possible.

The suggestions I make here are for the public’s consideration. I do not claim that this is the only way in which this problem can be addressed and solved but rather, hope that this starts the serious discussion and debate about a subject that has for far too long remained untouchable due to the immense emotional attachment that is associated with it.

If we do not tackle this problem now, it could very well cause the downfall of our great society. I do not make this claim lightly, but do so knowing how other societies have fallen, and what the causes of those failures were. We are on the precipice of the vary collapse of an experiment that was started over two hundred and thirty years ago. Our generation must prevent this from happening. Let’s get started.

CHAPTER 1

Where did Social Security Start?

Back during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration in the year 1935, President Roosevelt decided there needed to be a way to provide for the eventual problem of having a segment of the population living longer than the arbitrary tables indicated they should. The solution was to provide what was then called Social Security Insurance or SSI for short. Basically, what this program was, was an insurance policy set up to provide basic living allowence for the occasional person who outlived the arbitrary tables. The idea was, that the age of retirement was set so high that there would be few people who would actually live to collect on that policy but for those who did, there was a program in place to assist them with their needs should they have failed to prepare for it themselves. This program was never intended to become what it has become, a retirement plan for the masses.

Social Security was an idea that grew from the compassion our people have for their fellow man. It was designed to provide our seniors who were not fortunate enough to have accumulated enough assets to provide them with a minimum standard of living in their final years yet outlived their productive and income earning years. But, as with all other Government programs, once implemented, it only grew. It has come to be in the dire straits that it is presently in because of greed, because of power and because of lack of leadership over the years. Let’s discuss each of these at length.

Chapter 2

Greed. Greed has long been the driving force behind many of our governments’ mistakes. We elect public officials who we think are trustworthy, who are virtuous, who we think can serve our interest and then leave to go back to being a citizen again. What we end up getting are people who are prone to corruption or who are already at their core, corrupt. Our political establishment has been poisoned from the inside out. There are few who are there to do the public’s bidding, but rather, they are there to serve themselves and to gain as much as they can before the people wake up and throw them out. The few who are there for the good of the country are either corrupted through greed, sex, power, or any vice that can be exploited to force them to go along with the status quo or else they are run out by sheer viciousness of misuse of power by those who they would threaten. It is next to impossible to go into the national political arena and make changes that are necessary without giving some concessions that you would otherwise not consider. Once a concession is given, they have you. Period.

Chapter 3

Power. Power has long been the driving force behind men and women getting into political office. If you think I am exaggerating, why else would someone spend upwards of a billion dollars to be elected into a job that pays $500,000 a year unless they planned to get that money back by power and favors.

In Washington, power is more of a drug than any chemical drug you can purchase. The people in office would rather die than to give up their positions. If you believe this to be false, why else would they resort to such hateful tactics at election time? I propose that we have not had a group of sincerely honest people in charge since the beginning. Power is a drug unlike any other, not only is it addicting, but it corrupts not only the person, but the soul.

The politicians who are in office had the taste of power and refuse to give it up lightly. The things they say, or do, at election time gives credence to this statement. We the people have the power to get rid of these corrupted individuals but we have forgotten the power lies with us, not them.

Chapter 4

Lack of Leadership. The lack of leadership goes hand in hand with the other two. With the leaders we have elected throughout history, most all of them have shown just the opposite, lack of leadership. They come to us every few years and tell us what we want to hear and then they go back to Washington and do exactly the opposite. They continue this trend until the people get tired of the lies or finally wake up from their slumber and realize what has been happening. I cannot say honestly that it is their entire fault, we have been negligent in our monitoring of our elected officials. If we the people had remained vigilant in the monitoring of them, the problem would be nowhere as large as it is today. But, as the Japanese general said during the beginning of world war two, they have awakened a sleeping giant. The people are awake, they are aware, and they know that what has been taking place during their slumber has done great harm to both our economy and our country as a whole.

The People are ready to make the necessary changes to ensure the continued prosperity of our people and our country. The problem lies in our leadership. Our leaders feel that it is a suicidal act to announce what must be done to prevent the coming collapse of Social Security, instead, they continue to pass it along to the next administration or the next generation to handle. The problem is, there is no further generations to hand it off to. If we don’t fix the problem now, it will collapse the entire system and the people who were promised their social security will not see it nor will anyone else. We need strong leaders who are willing to say and do the hard things necessary for the good of the country regardless of the political ramification to them. I have always said, the best elected officials are the ones who do not really want to be there but are so because they want to help fix a problem they have experience in. If a person running for office makes a statement to that effect, they will have the support of the people.

Chapter 5

As I have stated previously, the intent of Social Security was to provide for the occasional citizen who outlived their productive years. The beginning of the collapse of this system started with the increase of the population after world war two, the baby boomers to be exact. During the time immediately after the end of the war, there was an incredible explosion of births in the United States. This generation was called the Baby Boomers and they were the largest generation the country had ever seen, larger than any country had seen in recorded history.

With so many people going into the workforce, the government decided that every working person would contribute to this system through the use of the Social Security Tax. This tax was meant to ensure there would be enough money in the Social Security Insurance fund to accommodate the eventual increase of longevity survivors due to the baby boomer generation. What the politicians did not anticipate was the amount of money this new generation would accumulate and grow for the country as a whole. The Social Security fund was overflowing with money.

This is where the problem began. The politicians in Washington started to see how much money was accumulating in the Social Security fund and started dreaming of ways they could get their hands on it to fund others services they thought were important. They decided to use the old I. O. U.

The government started writing iou’s to the Social Security fund as they started withdrawing money from it to pay of other services. Their reasoning was that there was so much money just sitting there that they could put it to use now and return it to the fund at a later date, stating that the baby boomer generation would not be needing it for approximately fifty years.

What we the people know is once the government spends money, it never returns it. The fund has been being systematically reduced by the utilization of these I.O.U’s to the point now where the fund is in the final years of collapse.

If the government would have left the Social Security fund alone and allowed it to accumulate even a minimum of interest, there would be enough money in the fund for all the baby boomers coming of retirement age as well as the coming generation. But they did not. Instead, they have robbed the citizens of this country in two ways. One, by taking the taxes out of their paychecks to pay for the Social Security fund and two, by taking the money out of the fund for purposes in which it was never intended.

The Fund is depleted to the point where some say it will be empty by 2020 or 2030. As of this writing, the year is 2011 and the first of the Baby Boomers will start reaching the age of 65 for the next nineteen years. That puts the last of the boomers at the age of 65 in the year 2029, right at the time when they say Social Security will be bankrupt. So as you can see, unless something is done now, we will have an entire generation of people who believed they had money for their retirement when in fact, they contributed to the biggest ponzy scheme in the history of the world.

Unless we take the steps necessary now, we will have an entire generation of people who will need to be taken care of either by family, by church, by friend, or by other social services that would soon be themselves overloaded. There is no easy fix, there will be suffering, but we can limit the amount of suffering to a minimum by taking action now.

Chapter 6

This is the Million Dollar question. What can we do to fix the problem? What can we do to prevent the collapse of our entire system. Here I can offer a solution. I do not say it is the best solution, nor do I say it is the only solution. I give only one man’s opinion on what can be done to stem the tide that is the eventual bankruptcy of this and countless other social services if the Social Security fund collapses. It will seem simplistic to many. It will seem to easy to be true, but I think it can be done and it can be done immediately with just a couple changes in legislation. Let’s see if you agree, if not, make your own plan and write about it, get it out to the masses and get people thinking about it. This is the way changes happen, one person at a time.

The solution. 1^st- We need to change current law to allow all funds presently in any type of retirement plan to be tax exempt. The reason for this is simple, compound interest. We allow the people’s money to work for them for as long as possible. In addition to this, we need to increase the amount of money people can put into their retirement plans to unlimited. The reason for this is simple, the more people can put in their retirements, the less they help they will need from the state or federal government at the age of retirement.

2^nd- We need to raise the age of retirement from where it is presently, age 62 to 70. The present retirement age is way too young base on the current longevity tables. I think that age of retirement should be raised to 75. This would give the Social Security fund time to grow. People are living longer and therefore can be productive for a longer period of time. The present practice and making it mandatory to retire is ignorant at the least and should be criminal. Just because people get older does not mean they are any less productive. Yes, they may have to be placed in less physical positions where they are more able to perform according to their age and physical limitation that occur when we get older.

3^rd- We need to provide government funded investment education for all ages of people who are presently in the workforce. We did a good thing as a country by changing how retirement is paid for by taking it out of the employer’s hands and making individuals more responsible for it. This allows the companies to use that money to grow, that creates new jobs which offers additional stimulus to the economy. What the government did wrong was fail to educate the people on how to invest for their future. It was common practice in the past for people to be more hands off when it came to their retirement plans because the company they were working for were responsible for the investment and growth of the retirement fund. But now, we have individuals responsible for their own retirement but no education on how to go about it. They are being set up to fail.

4^th- Anyone in the workforce who are age 25 or under would be required to still pay into the Social Security fund while at the same time contribute to their own retirement funds. This is where people are not going to be happy. The reason for this is twofold. 1, we still need to provide for the baby boomers who are going to be alive for possibly another 40 years and 2, the present and future generations need to provide for their own retirements. I would suggest that any money contributed to their own retirements not only be allowed to grow tax free but would also be allowed to be exempt from federal and state income taxes. This would be a two generation tax break with a expiration clause built into the bill. This would not be subject to continuation upon a vote of congress but would indeed expire as it is supposed to. We have seen all to clearly what happens when you leave something like this open to continuation with the Bush tax cuts. I think they should have been made permanent at the time of proposal or should have had an expiration date set up like the one suggested above, this would have eliminated any problems like we are seeing in present day.

5^th- Another point that will have multiple groups against this plan. I say again that this problem cannot be fixed without some pain; the plan is to make it as painless as possible. We need to start drawing down the amount we put into Medicare, Medicaid and the Prescription drug plan. This will allow us to start balancing the budget of the United States while at the same time start saving a fund for National Emergencies. We need to start making changes to the qualification standards for the above mentioned programs to make it harder for people to receive these benefits from the federal government. If States want to have these types of programs they should have the citizens of that state vote for them and finance them through their state taxes. I see no advantage of someone paying taxes in one state to help out people who made bad decisions in another state. By making these programs state funded, we eliminate the growth of the federal government through taxation. Remember, the closer to the people, the better.

Lastly, We need to start making sure through our vote that the Federal Government does what it was established to do, that means National Security, National infrastructure, and providing for the common good. All the other things the Federal Government is presently doing is beyond its scope of empowerment through the Constitution. This encroachment of power is what is partly to blame for the Social Security fund being on the brink of bankruptcy it presently sees itself. Only through the downsizing of government, the enhancement of States rights, and the encouragement of private citizens once again becoming responsible for themselves can we move this country back to the light on the hill it once was.

We were, at one time, the country that all others looked at for motivation of change, for potential of human spirit and for ingenuity of individuals. We were the shining light on the hill that every one wanted to be part of. We had people risking death, imprisonment, separation of family, starvation and many other harsh realities in order to come here. We can once again be that country, but not without sacrifice. Are you willing? Are you willing to forfeit your dreams of early retirement so that your children will have the same chance at Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness? Are you willing to do the uncomfortable, the hard work, the changes that will be necessary to give the next generations their shot? Only if we as a people say yes to these questions can we truly make the changes necessary for the continued prosperity of our people and our country. The decision is yours, and ours. What will we decide?