Hispanic Voters Strongly Support Individual Retirement Accounts

August 26, 1999

A new poll of likely voters conducted by Zogby International and commissioned by the Cato Institute includes some startling results: 60.6 percent of Hispanic voters prefer that the Social Security system be changed to allow them the choice of investing their Social Security taxes in individual accounts. In fact, Hispanic voters support individual accounts even more strongly than white voters.

The poll result makes lots of sense, considering Social Security's impact on Hispanics: they enter the labor force at an earlier age than the rest of the population and therefore contribute to Social Security for a longer period of time, but they do not receive a correspondingly higher return. Privately owned retirement accounts would significantly increase the return they receive on their contributions. Additionally, the Hispanic population is the youngest and fastest-growing group in America, and will comprise one in five American workers after the baby boomers hit retirement in 2030. Thus, they're most likely to suffer from the shortfall in the Social Security trust fund as our population ages.

A detailed report on the results of the Zogby poll will be released on September 9.

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