Social Security English paper

Alexandria Roberts
English, Nelson
10/13/2011
Not a Chance without Change
It’s already the year 2011 and how many people actually know what Social Security is, let alone understand it’s function in our country? I have to ask this question right away before I can continue on explaining how I plan to fix the problems that have been pointed out by news stations both local and national, because how can you explain how to fix something to someone who doesn’t know what you’re talking about? It’s like trying to tell a normal person how to fix their sink if they’ve never had any background in plumbing. Social security is a program set up by the U.S. federal government that provides retirement income, disability income and other financial benefits to those who qualify, while you work Social Security, as well as Medicare, taxes are withheld from each pay check. This is how the program is funded, and though it may have worked so far it’s not going to cut it anymore if the program continues to be run in this fashion. According to USA Today and many other reports the Social Security trust fund will be ran dry by the year 2036, do you know how old you’ll be when that happens? If you’re my age then you’ll only be 44 years old, however you’re required to be 65 years old to receive full social security benefits (Wolf, Richard). This creates a problem for those who wait to retire until they’re 65, there won’t be a way for them to receive full benefits. This finally leads me to my solutions, though they are not a quick fix they will leave us in a better state for the future.
After a little bit of research it turned out that approximately 52,522,819 people have been on social security, though this poll was done in the year 2009 it isn’t far off the mark(Annual Statistical Supplement). Why does it matter how many people are on social security currently? Because for the first part of my plan I would like to suggest that we take just about $6 out of each check that is given out. At first that doesn’t seem like much but after you multiply 52,522,819 by 6 it’s a noticeable amount that will be saved up, approximately $315,136,914. These checks that I mentioned moments ago are also sent out around 12 times a year, so again you would multiply $315,136,914 by 12 and get your total, approximately $3,781,642,968 for an entire year of taking only 6 dollars from each check that passes through Social Security. Then after, let’s say 20 years, you will have built up around $75,632,859,360. However, this is $75,632,859,360 that won’t be recycled back into the economy until the next generation begins receiving their Social Security checks, in which the process would repeat as to make sure we always have at least a surplus of cash.
After the money is taken out it should be placed in a bank account with a figurative ‘do not open’ until lock on it. By not allowing the government to touch this money even if there is an expected surplus will give it time to build in size and interest ensuring success in refueling the Social Security trust. However the biggest drawback to this plan is, would we be able to get enough money to keep Social Security afloat, while keeping our economy from crashing? After all $3,781,642,968 is a lot of money that could very well be spent elsewhere.
When a friend asked one of her teacher’s how she would handle the Social Security issue they jested that “Once people turned 60 we could put them in a forest and give them about 7 minutes to escape, if you aren’t strong enough then you’re shot. Then every 10 years after a trial is another trial, though since you aged the time limit would go up a little. This method would keep repeating until you’re no longer able to complete the course and are probably not useable to the community anyway.” Though that treatment is far too harsh they had a point, people live much longer than they use to and this leads me to another solution to this problem, if possibly added on to the above solution (not the killing solution, but withholding a little cash), could be to raise the age limit before a person could receive Social Security, or add a minimum number of years that a person would have to work before they are allowed to receive any Social Security .
If we don’t act no one knows for sure what will happen, since The Social Security Act does not specify what would happen to benefits if the trust funds became insolvent. Social Security beneficiaries and qualifying applicants would remain legally entitled to full benefits and could take legal action to claim the balance of their benefits. The legal conflict between benefit entitlement and the Antideficiency Act would need to be resolved either by Congress or by the courts (Scott, Christine). So to prevent this from happening I suggest starting to withhold just a little money, though this not an immediate solution it will gain plenty of money in the next 20 years instead of what’s gained just by taxes, thought taxes would also continue otherwise we’d continue the problem and just have a different leak in our boat to fix. The next thing we can do is put a high age limit on Social Security, as of right now you must be 65 years old to receive full benefits, this is whether you’ve worked hard your whole life or not. The average human life span is around 90 almost a 100 years now, this is 25 years that social security will pay for. If you increased the age to around 75 that would decrease the time to about 18 years that social security would have to pay for instead of that large 25 years. Now I can understand not wanting to higher the age limit, people want to live life comfortably in their last 25 years here, however the fund can’t take so many people getting Social Security without a large amount of people working to earn it for them. So the third option is to add a limited amount of years that a person would be required to work before they are allowed to receive social security benefits, partial or full benefits. By adding a limit the the fund will have time to grow and recover from the Baby Boomers and then my generation. It’s up to us to change things, because it isn’t going to change like this. It is hard fact that humans do not like change, though we are adaptable creatures. Once something becomes a habit we’ll ride it down to the end instead of changing our actions, and that’s why there’s no chance without change.


Works Cited
"Social Security & Medicare - LifeTuner." Money Management Tools, Resources, & Information - LifeTuner. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.lifetuner.org/social-security-and-medicare?CMP=KNC-360I-GOOGLE-LTN&HBX_PK=what_is_social_security&utm_source=GOOGLE&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=what%2Bis%2Bsocial%2Bsecurity&utm_campaign=G_Topics%2BAZ%2B-%2BSocial%2BSecurity%2B&%2BMedicare&36
"Annual Statistical Supplement, 2010 - Summary of OASDI Benefits in Current-Payment Status (5.A)." The United States Social Security Administration. Social Security Administration, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomp
Wolf, Richard. "Medicare, Social Security Running out of Money Faster." RSC Policy Analysis. RSC, 13 May 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <rsc.jordan.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=241341>.
Scott, Christine. "Social Security: What Would Happen If the Trust Funds Ran Out? ." Congressional Research Service. Congressional Research Service, 20 Aug. 2009. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <aging.senate.gov/crs/ss1.pdf>.

Very well constructed... As I look it over, I don't really see much besides very minor and optional punctuations that could be set here and there. But that's just my insight, and I said they're optional, but not necessarily needed, so it's well made. Hope you get a good mark with it. ^.^

Alexandria Roberts
English, Nelson
10/13/2011
Not a Chance without Change
It’s already the year 2011. How many people actually know what Social Security is, let alone understand [its] function in our country? I have to ask this question right away before I can continue on explaining how I plan to fix the problems that have been pointed out by news stations both local and national, because [I would have explain the problem before providing an answer to it.] It’s like trying to tell a normal person how to fix their sink if they’ve never had any background in plumbing. Social security is a program set up by the U.S. federal government that provides retirement income, disability income[,] and other financial benefits to those who qualify. While you work Social Security, as well as Medicare, taxes are withheld from each [paycheck]. This is how the program is funded, and though it may have worked so far it’s not going to cut it anymore if the program continues to be run in this fashion. According to USA Today and many other reports the Social Security trust fund will be ran dry by the year 2036[.] Do you know how old you’ll be when that happens? If you’re my age then you’ll only be 44 years old, however you’re required to be 65 years old to receive full social security benefits (Wolf, Richard). This creates a problem for those who wait to retire until they’re 65. There won’t be a way for them to receive full benefits. This finally leads me to my solutions, though they are not a quick fix they will leave us in a better state for the future.
After a little bit of research it turned out that approximately 52,522,819 people have been on social security[. T]hough this poll was done in the year 2009 it isn’t far off the mark(Annual Statistical Supplement). Why does it matter how many people are on social security currently? [It matters] because, for the first part of my plan, I would like to suggest that we take just about $6 out of each check that is given out. At first that doesn’t seem like much but after you multiply 52,522,819 by 6 it’s a noticeable amount that will be saved up, approximately $315,136,914. These checks that I mentioned moments ago are also sent out around 12 times a year, so again you would multiply $315,136,914 by 12 and get your total, approximately $3,781,642,968 for an entire year of taking only 6 dollars from each check that passes through Social Security. Then after, let’s say 20 years, you will have built up around $75,632,859,360. However, this is $75,632,859,360 that won’t be recycled back into the economy until the next generation begins receiving their Social Security checks, in which the process would repeat as to make sure we always have at least a surplus of cash.
After the money is taken out it should be placed in a bank account with a figurative ‘do not open’ until lock on it. By not allowing the government to touch this money even if there is an expected surplus will give it time to build in size and interest ensuring success in refueling the Social Security trust. However the biggest drawback to this plan is, would we be able to get enough money to keep Social Security afloat, while keeping our economy from crashing? After all $3,781,642,968 is a lot of money that could very well be spent elsewhere.
When a friend asked one of her [teachers] how she would handle the Social Security issue they jested that “Once people turned 60 we could put them in a forest and give them about 7 minutes to escape, if you aren’t strong enough then you’re shot. Then every 10 years after a trial is another trial, though since you aged the time limit would go up a little. This method would keep repeating until you’re no longer able to complete the course and are probably not useable to the community anyway.” Though that treatment is far too harsh they had a point, people live much longer than they use to and this leads me to another solution to this problem, if possibly added on to the above solution (not the killing solution, but withholding a little cash), could be to raise the age limit before a person could receive Social Security, or add a minimum number of years that a person would have to work before they are allowed to receive any Social Security .
If we don’t act no one knows for sure what will happen, since The Social Security Act does not specify what would happen to benefits if the trust funds became insolvent. Social Security beneficiaries and qualifying applicants would remain legally entitled to full benefits and could take legal action to claim the balance of their benefits. The legal conflict between benefit entitlement and the Antideficiency Act would need to be resolved either by Congress or by the courts (Scott, Christine). So to prevent this from happening I suggest starting to withhold just a little money, though this not an immediate solution it will gain plenty of money in the next 20 years instead of what’s gained just by taxes, thought taxes would also continue otherwise we’d continue the problem and just have a different leak in our boat to fix. The next thing we can do is put a high age limit on Social Security, as of right now you must be 65 years old to receive full benefits, this is whether you’ve worked hard your whole life or not. The average human life span is around 90 almost a 100 years now, this is 25 years that social security will pay for. If you increased the age to around 75 that would decrease the time to about 18 years that social security would have to pay for instead of that large 25 years. Now I can understand not wanting to higher the age limit, people want to live life comfortably in their last 25 years here, however the fund can’t take so many people getting Social Security without a large amount of people working to earn it for them[,] so the third option is to add a limited amount of years that a person would be required to work before they are allowed to receive social security benefits, partial or full benefits. By adding a limit the fund will have time to grow and recover from the Baby Boomers and then my generation. It’s up to us to change things, because it isn’t going to change like this. It is hard fact that humans do not like change, though we are adaptable creatures. Once something becomes a habit we’ll ride it down to the end instead of changing our actions, and that’s why there’s no chance without change.


I tried my best to look for any errors. I hope I helped.