· Who
Social security and Medicare benefits in this session are for the aged population. These benefits include Old Age and Survivors insurance (OASI), Disability insurance (DI)) and Medicare benefits such as Hospital insurance (HI) and Supplemental Medical insurance (SMI). The targets of these benefits are retired people who have at least worked 40 quarters (10 years) in their life.
The working population is the one that feeds the social security fund. Social security fund is taken out as taxes on paycheck from the employee and the employers also have to donate certain amount towards it. Also if someone is self employed, they pay more taxes towards social security but do get more tax deductions towards their income tax.
Generally the lower class depends on social security as their primary and sometimes the only source of income when retired.
· Why
SS fund is there to provide a decent and dignified retirement for all Americans. It is like a savings account for which they have to add during their working time so that they will have money to retire on. The Medicare also provides aid towards health bills for the elderly. These federal programs were passed into law by FDR during the 1930's. SS also does not hold certain stigma's that other welfare programs hold and every working American is eligible for it.
· What
The SS fund is pretty much contributions of workers during their working age to support their old age. The way the current SS structure works is that workers pay taxes, and these funds are being used by the current retirees. Although back in the 50's there were 16 Americans contributing towards 1 retirees SS, today its 3 Americans per 1 retiree. In the near future it will be 2 to 1 because there are more elderly people than the working people due to the "baby boomers". This is depleting the SS fund faster than the revenues coming in and according to economist, it will be depleted in the near future. Most of the SS funds are invested into federal bonds to accumulate interest. Some of the Medicare money is invested into riskier stocks.
· How well
Currently the way SS is on track of being depleted, the current administration has not addressed the issue much. Obama administration is on a firm no for the privatization of SS and yet it offers no other solutions. In my opinion, socializing health care on one end and letting SS funds run out on the other has to be grounds for concern.
· What you personally think should be done
I definitely believe in privatizing SS as the benefits outweigh the risks. Right now the working people are putting in tax dollars towards social security which they might never see. It is not guaranteed. As for the arguments against it stating that the poor people solely depend on this and they will take the biggest hit, but if there is nothing to give in the future to ANYONE, what's the point of this argument? Privatizing SS will in face make everyone more money conscious and smarter budget wise to secure their own future and also leaving their family with their own hard earned money. Given that privatizing SS will be cost around 2 trillion dollars, but it will outweigh this cost in the future as this transition is definitely required.
I think your views on what you personally think should be done are very solid. I completely agree with what you said about privatizing social security b/c the benefits, will in fact, outweigh the risks. That's the thing about social security now, people work hard but that money is going to someone else that did or did not work as hard as you're working now. It's just insane to be paying for something that might not be guaranteed for you.
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