Macroeconomics
November 11th, 2014
Final
Should Social Security be Privatized? A question that has been talked about a lot in the recent years is the privatization of Social Security. This is the case because Social Security is scheduled to become insolvent by the year 2037. This means that by that time the Social Security system will only be able to pay out 75 percent of benefits to beneficiaries. This is where privatization comes in. People are pointing out that there is a 25 percent chance that they will not receive payment. Along with this there is typically low return rate on money paid in to money paid out therefore some people want to stop paying in to the system and start investing their money elsewhere. People argue …show more content…
In a poll carried out by ABC news and the Washington post shows that 38 percent of the people they polled didn’t trust the system to pay their benefits for the length of their retirement (ABC/Wash. Post Poll). This is simply not true, after 2037 without any reforms the funds will continue to pay out 76 percent of all benefits. I feel that if we let Social Security die then there will be untold and unforeseen consequences. Some of these negative effects could be an over abundance of homeless and impoverished people who didn’t invest their money right or lost all their retirement to a stock market collapse. I see a world were the elderly work until they die because they have to pay for basic necessities. Social Security protects of from these things and that is why I feel that we should be doing something to fix our Social Security problem. I also feel that the U.S. government should be more proactive about these type of things so that by the time 2037 rolls around we have a full fledged plan on how we are going to deal with this inevitable 24 percent benefit payout cut. Privatization of Social Security is a terrible idea in my opinion if privatization of Social Security worked then it would still be privatized today. It is scary to think about all the misconceptions that surround this that are totally false and people believe them …show more content…
If the disabled and the elderly didn’t have Social Security during this past economic slump, that we are just now emerging from, many of these people would be left with no source of income. It states directly on saa.gov “Social Security benefits represent about 38% of the income of the elderly (Social Security: Basic Facts).” Just imagine millions of elderly and retirees working jobs until they die just to feed, cloth, and shelter themselves. Social Security is the safety net for the people that cannot work to take care of themselves and what our generation doesn’t understand is that we will replace them in the system so everyone benefits in time. If Social Security were to go away tomorrow 57.9 billion beneficiaries would be without much needed income (Social Security: Basic