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Home > Opinion

Invest in your own future

By Brian Glotzbach

Published: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Recently there's been a lot of talk around the nation about looming problems facing Social Security. For the level-headed and realistic-minded, Social Security an issue that needs to be addressed now before the problem gets worse. For those in la-la land, including the majority of my favorite party, the Democrats, there is no problem with Social Security. They'd prefer to tell everyone 40 and younger that there will be no reduction in benefits and Social Security is solvent for the long haul. They are wrong.

Politics aside, the system is broken, and it needs to be fixed. Now.

To understand why there is a looming problem with Social Security, one needs only look at the way the program was created in the first place. Basically, as one pays into the Social Security "trust fund," another is there to withdraw those funds upon retirement. The problem with this is that it assumes there will be enough workers paying into the system to cover the benefits guaranteed to those who have retired and are drawing out of the system. As we all know, with the babyboomer generation nearing retirement, there will not be enough workers contributing to the system to pay for the retirees drawing from it.

Something needs to be done.

President Bush's proposal for personal accounts is a start. However, I would go one step farther. Instead of having a "lump sum" system where all Social Security taxes go into the same fund, I would radically alter the system by creating a personal account for every individual who pays Social Security. That account would only be available to that individual. Therefore, what an individual pays into the system is what they will get out of the system when they retire. It is only fair that if the government is going to force you into a mandated tax plan for retirement those funds be there when you retire. Instead, according to the GAO, when you and I are ready to retire, we'll be lucky to get 50 percent of the benefits that are promised to us. It is interesting, then, that government workers are exempt from Social Security and have their own plan, one similar to what I am proposing here.

It's always curious that people are so opposed to allowing workers to invest in their own future instead of someone else's. This mentality is what has led to the Social Security hoax in the first place. There is nothing secure about Social Security. Even people receiving benefits now are finding it is not enough to live on.

To have a reasonable retirement, people need to invest other income in a retirement plan that is separate from Social Security. This means that, in addition to their 15 percent tax to pay for Social Security, they must put aside more of their earnings in a retirement account that yields a greater return. Many low-income workers simply can't afford this, and yet our government, the people who are supposed to be looking out for our best interests, refuses to alter the joke that is Social Security and allow workers to seek a better rate of return on their social security tax. On top of that, they play politics and scare tactics in an attempt to conceal the truth from the very people who pay for this boondoggle in the first place.

The best way to deal with Social Security would be to kill it altogether. Let workers take their money and invest in their retirement in a manner they see fit. America was founded on the principles of personal freedom and responsibility, and Social Security is yet another example of how we are moving away from that ethos.

However, since I am well aware that killing Social Security will never happen, I would settle for the next best thing: personal accounts for individuals so their benefits will be there when needed.

Social Security is a joke. The time to fix it and turn it into a viable program is now. Not five years from now. Not 10. Not 20. If we wait that long, the whole system will be insolvent and everyone will be wondering how they're going to get through retirement, especially those who did not have the option to invest in other retirement options. Now tell me: Who are we really hurting by doing nothing?

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