Future Of Social Security Essay

Social security has long been the United States governments most popular program. Social security was signed into law in 1935. At the time, it was designed to be a key provider of income for Americans who reach the retirement age, become disabled, or pass away. The key idea was that the whole economy would benefit if the money were put into the hands of the older Americans who would spend at a high rate and serve as a stimulator for economic recovery. Social security was set up to pay benefits to retired citizens. The money came out of taxes on paychecks of those still working. It is basically a pay-as-you-go program. Today’s workers’ pay into social security in hopes that they will be able to reap the benefits when they retire.
The current discussion often revolves around questions on the future of social security. Do I have an enough money to retire 30 years from now? Will I be able to get benefits from the government when I retire? Well, unfortunately, the future of social security looks rough even in the face of proposed reforms. The main issue with the current social security struggle is that there are more people retiring than those who are in the work field. For example, the baby boomer generation are all reaching retirement age …show more content…
In the article The Christian Century, Klay and Steen suggest four developments that could avert the collapse of social security: large increases in either the death rate of seniors or the birth rate, higher immigration by working-age persons, a phenomenal increase in the productivity of workers, or the imposition of much higher taxes along with reduced benefits. However, the first three are probably out of question but there’s hope in reforms if the retirement age was bumped up to seventy, if there was a raise in the income ceiling, if a decrease in the amount of social security receive each year occurred, or social security benefits were given entirely on the basis of