Social Security

“Social Security, Will You Get Yours?”
Summary:
Ellen Hoffman’s, “Social Security, Will You Get Yours?” is an article that goes over the main issue with social security; will you get your social security when the time comes for you to retire? This article discusses a very real and important topic for every United States citizen who will ever be even remotely dependent on social security for some type of income.
Written in 2002, the article gives the reader insight into social security questions, facts, and statistics. Beginning by the position of small business owners who are in their fifties, nearing retirement and unable to know what their plan is for financial security as they are just making it by. They are scared because they feel they cannot rely on social security alone. The article then begins going into what the real problems lye within social security and a small history lesson behind how some of the problems have occurred.
The author lists some of the reasons for social security problems, beginning with the “pay as you go” program, then the fact that people are living longer than when social security was initially put into motion, and the fact that fewer people are contributing to social security, and more people are taking out. According to the article, benefits were suppose to be covered for retirees until 2015 by payroll taxes, then by 2016 benefits would then begin to be covered by FICA payments and interest from bonds, then by 2038 all bonds will need to be sold. According the author the ultimate problem is that not enough people are coming into the work force to support all of the retirees. However the author goes on to say that social security is far from going broke and the situation is not hopeless.
The article continues by going over some suggested solutions to fix social security. Beginning with a choice of taking money out and investing in personal accounts, giving someone the ability to take more beneficial options for their investments. Another suggestion the author mentioned was to raise taxes, adjusting existing benefits, and even finding new revenue sources to bring in more money to cover costs.
In conclusion, the overall point that the author makes is that people should have a retirement plan and save their money and not depend on social security, and that people in their forties have the advantage to start saving and planning now so that their will be no worries later on.
What I have learned: I always have heard about social security problems, and that there will be no social security check for me when I get older. However, I feel that this article helped give me a lot more information and understanding of its background, the current state of social security at that time (2002), and what could be done about it. Ten years later I am honestly not sure how much we have improved it. However this information empowers me to plan for retirement and not rely on the government to cover my expenses. I consider it to just being another percentage taken out of my paycheck. It was a very interesting article though and I definitely feel I did learn something about my future by reading and summarizing this.