May 17, 2008

Were you counting on Social Security?

If you're counting on Social Security for a portion of your income when you retire, you need to know a bit about the system, how it operates, and its future prospects. The Social Security Reform Center is your one-stop source on the Social Security reform debate.

The first thing to know is that Social Security is a bad deal for workers today, offering a much lower return than other investments.

And looking to the future, things only get worse. Younger workers are right to question whether Social Security will be able to provide them with promised benefits when they retire. The huge tax hikes required would exact a great cost on our economy, on employment opportunities, and on future generations.

For over 70 years, Social Security has helped to keep millions of elderly Americans from poverty. But the program rests today on unsound footing.

Social Security can be strengthened in a way that improves workers' returns, erases the system's future deficits, and helps all Americans save a nest egg that they can pass on to their children and grandchildren.

And all this can be done without changing the benefits of those in or near retirement today.

Small changes won't save Social Security. At best, small changes push the financing problem a few years into the future--usually at great cost.

The key to real reform is personal retirement accounts in which all workers could save a portion of their payroll taxes. Safe investments and years of compounding would provide today's workers with real ownership of their retirements, real choices, and peace of mind that the current system cannot offer.

The Social Security Reform Center exists to help you understand the urgency of Social Security reform, the shortcomings of the current system, and the great promise that reform with personal accounts holds for tomorrow's retirees.