Chris Estey 11/13/2009 English 102 Christy Vance
Would you trust your retirement fund to the stock market, or even a portion of it? This thought is part of many proposals that have been introduced to reform Social Security. Personal savings accounts for people, to place a portion of their payroll taxes into, to be invested in the stock market.
The Social Security program will not last in its current situation without making some changes. With Baby Boomers beginning to retire now, the money going into the program, vs. the benefits being paid out will begin to turn the current ratio upside down, slowly draining the surplus funds, until there will not be enough to pay 100% of all benefits to retirees.
In the 1980’s, the government made some changes to the system to keep it afloat, including higher payroll taxes and raising the standard retirement age from 65 to 67 over a period of years. While this did help the program at the time, it was only a temporary fix to a problem that would continue to grow with inflation and other programs in government being funded from the surplus and more of the same kind of changes would be unrealistic, placing an even higher tax burden on today’s workers. Instead, placing a percentage of worker’s payroll taxes into personal savings accounts that could be invested into stocks and bonds, that over time, would bring in more funds for retirement than the current system could, given enough time for the investments to grow. Opposition to this reform such as
say it is a backdoor assault on social security that will bankrupt the system. While this will certainly change social security as we know it now, if nothing is done, the system will surely fail in the future, leaving many without needed funds to help them live in their later years. Many critics say the stock market is too volatile to chance investing retirement funds in, citing examples of recent decline in the market and scandals where many people lost much of their retirement. Peter J. Ferrara, a former senior policy advisor on Social Security for Norquist’s Organization said that even with the ups and downs of the market people would certainly end up with more over a lifetime of investment than they would with a pay-as-you-go Social Security system.
Whether you would trust a system that relies on stocks and bonds and has the possibility for great loss or gain, or one that will see a certain amount for sure, knowing it may decrease in time, some type of change to the system is inevitable in the future.
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Great Op-Ed! I really liked how you started your paper by asking if we would trust investing our retirement fund into the stock market? It caught my attention and made me really think if I would. You gave some really good information being that it is only 500 words. I thought it was really interesting how you found a way for a system that would work. And your ending statement really was very good and to the point. Great paper.
ReplyDeleteIt thought that your op-ed was well formed and you presented very good facts about your topic. It is clear that you have researched your topic and you made a strong stance with it. I like your voice throught the paper. It sounds logical and the fact that you offer some type of solution to the current problem helps with the crediblilty of your paper. Your stance on the topic was clear and I definatly knew what your main point was with the op-ed writing.
ReplyDeletePlaying devil's advocate will be easy for me after reading your op-ed because my Dad lost almost half of his retirement in the "crash" and is not constantly worrying about how he will compensate for all the money he lost. But your quote and great citation by Peter Ferrara helps negate people like me who are skeptics of the stock market since the recent turn of the economy.
ReplyDeleteYour tone was strong throughout your paper, it was very obvious that you're rallying for social security reform, and you feeling the stock market is a considerable solution for people who will retire in the years to come. The organization flowed nicely, and I thought it helped your stance to address what issues people might have with the stock market approach to retirement.
Though I was only able to find one source, it was introduced very thoroughly and in turn gave you more credibility by doing so. I really enjoyed this piece.