Social Security Problem

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Social Security: What have they done to us? In the late 1940s after World War II, all the brave that survived soldiers the war returned to the United States to regain what they had lost from being away for so long. During this time, a new phenomenon was born that would drastically change the way American society lives from then to today. When the soldiers that went off to war came home, they returned with the purpose of moving forward from the pains of war and starting a new life, a family. The Baby Boom is a term that describes the starting of a new generation. It was the result of a large amount of soldiers returning home and new starting families. Baby Boomers are the offspring created by these parents. In the coming years, the Baby Boom…show more content…
Stockman, a Wilson Professor Economics at the University of Rochester, wrote an essay called “The Only Real Solution to the Social Security Problem”. In his essay he explains the background of social security, the problem, and the possible solutions to fixing this problem, in his opinion. He states that “More people will be retired, collecting social security benefits, and the United State will have fewer workers per recipient” (Article 1). How is something like this fixed? Professor Stockman created a scenario, set it in the year 2030; helps put an illustration to what he is writing. The main point to take out of this illustration is the fact that in 2030, seniors will consume a large amount of good and services. The Professor asks, “Where will we these goods and services come from?” (Article 1) To every question there is answer. According to Professor Alan these answers are greatly limited and continue to be more limited as more time passes by. The two more important options would include: 1) Lower consumptions by the younger generation, 2) Increase GDP (Gross Domestic Product) resulting from the reduced number seniors in retirement. The final question that Professor addresses is one of policy. “What can the U.S. do prior to 2030 to alleviate the problem?” (Article 1) He asks. He answers, “Take actions now to raise GDP in 2030 by raising the economies expected productive capacity in that…show more content…
Ramey speaks on the behalf of social security and keeping it around but she brings in some different ways of solving this problem. Ramey is a Professor of Economics at The University of California, San Diego. She wrote a piece, “Saving Social Security”, in the summer of 2005 discussing plausible options to the Social Security issue. Referring to this issue as the “third rail of politics”, she expected this issue to raise a lot of questions and arguments. She stated that Social Security has been a “pay-as-you-go” system. In other words, “workers produced output,” (money) “the government took a portion (by the payroll tax), and immediately gave it to the current retirees (in the form of Social Security benefits checks).” She also says, “Contrary to popular belief, the Social Security Administration did not “save” the worker’s income for his retirement” (Article 2). She talks about how the ratio of how many working citizens to retirees has gone down and wonders why exactly? The answer is simply that people in the baby boom generation are having fewer children in recent years. With her proposed solution to the problem above she also introduces some ways to help with the main issue of Social Security. The four topics that were raised are to: 1) Increase the retirement age, 2) Change Social Security Indexing, 3) Raise Social Security Taxes, and 4) Privatize Social Security

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