A Younger American's Perspective

September 12, 2003

"As a 19-year-old college sophomore… it never crossed my mind I should add retirement security to [the] list of things to worry about," writes Hilary Drew, an intern with the nonprofit Social Security education project For Our Grandchildren. In "Social Security's Empty Promise," an article for the Washington Times, Drew alludes to younger Americans' frustration with forced participation in a failing Social Security system. Excerpts follow:

"On July 28, the Senate Special Committee on Aging heard testimony from the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The GAO reported that unless changes are made to Social Security, Congress must choose 'between persistent, escalating federal deficits, significant tax increases, and/or dramatic budget cuts of unprecedented magnitude.'

"Perhaps most surprising, this shocked no one. The deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration testified that these findings were all true. Social Security is facing a funding crisis. It has to be fixed.

"Social Security transfers payroll taxes from me and every worker in this country, directly to people like my grandparents. No money is being saved to fund my own retirement benefits; instead, I have to rely on future workers to pay enough taxes to support me.

"In the 1950s there were 16 workers paying into Social Security for each retiree receiving benefits. Today, there are three workers supporting each retiree. By the time I retire in the 2040s, only two workers will be supporting each retiree. … When the worker-to-retiree ratio falls to 2-to-1, taxes will have to rise to 18 percent of wages, just for Social Security. Almost 20 percent of every worker's wages will be taken to pay for Social Security alone.

"The simple fact is that without large tax increases Social Security cannot pay what it owes. When the Baby Boomers start retiring in 2008, at the rate of 10,000 per day, the number of people receiving benefits will double in less than 20 years. The number of workers paying into the system will increase barely at all.

"My generation faces the prospect of having money taken out of every paycheck we receive, from our first summer jobs until the day we retire, but with no guarantee we will get back even a fraction of what we put into the system.

"There are many ways Social Security can be put back on track. For example, we could incorporate personal accounts, where we could invest part of our Social Security contributions for the future. At least then we could be sure something would be there for us at retirement.

"The important thing is that changes must be made to strengthen Social Security, and they should be made sooner rather than later. Making changes today is going to ease the burden on my generation tomorrow, and will go a long way in assuring retirement benefits not just for today's retirees, but for my generation as well.

"Why should young people who will start retiring in 2035 be forced to live with a system invented in 1935? Young people deserve as much security as their grandparents enjoy."

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