Social Security

As people mature they are entitled to change their minds about issues, and I have recently found occasion to change my mind on a big one.

For most of my life I have seen social security as anything but secure, and as an unneeded tax burden that had to be phased out. Now I’m not so sure.

As I have studied the issue more deeply I find that social security is more akin to a form of government retirement fund than a forced charity. The concept is you pay in for most of your life, and then draw out for your golden years. While this still makes only a little sense to me at this time I do see the benefit for those who genuinely need it.

Let’s face it, most Americans are too busy trying to make ends meet and still have some recreation on the side to fund a retirement on their own. This is especially true of the lower income brackets. The simple fact is that an unsettling number of Americans would never use the money they pay into social security to build a retirement fund. O do away with social security would be to place the people who need it most in a situation where they will spend their declining years wholly destitute. This is the very thing that social security was designed to prevent.

So the question then becomes; how do we shore up social security to guarantee it will still be there when my generation needs it? How about when my grandchildren need it? And what about their grandchildren? See, when making long term plans it is important to think of the consequences of our action beyond our own immediate needs.

I don’t have all the answers right now. One day I hope to, and if I don’t then I need to find somebody who can fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. But I do have one suggestion. To my knowledge everybody gets social security once they reach the appropriate age regardless of personal wealth. It might help out to cut the social security benefits off entirely for those who have amassed enough wealth do without it comfortably. Hypothetically speaking, in today’s dollars that would be say . . . one million dollars net worth, not counting one personal residence. This number is probably actually a bit low, but the beauty comes in when that person’s net worth drops below the set mark then social security will kick in.

Obviously there will be abuses of a system that is set up this way, but I would probably be right to say that those abuses would only come from people who are near the mark. People with significantly more than the maximum worth would be crazy to forfeit an entire fortune just to get a check from the government every month.

I don’t know what the maximum net worth of a person should be before social security gets cut off, but I know there is one that is fair and workable. The mystery in this piece of the plan is just how much that is.

I’m no economist. I just have a basic working knowledge of economics, enough to keep from being bamboozled by any but the most skilled con-men. But that’s okay. A man in authority is supposed to surround himself with experts in every pertinent field, including economics. That’s exactly what I intend to do should I ever pull off the most unlikely stunt of all time by becoming President of the United States of America.

I will look deeper into the issue of social security as the years go on, and I hope to find more workable solutions to shore up social security for generations to come without it becoming too great a burden to bear. If it ever does become too much for the American people then the government would be forced to cut it or drive our nation into generalized poverty. We can not allow this to happen. We must find a solution, and we must find it before it becomes a crisis.