New Poll Shows Little Confidence in Social Security

October 11, 1999

Friday's Wall Street Journal reported on the results of a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll on Americans' concerns about retirement. By a margin greater than two-to-one, Americans are more concerned about not having enough money in retirement than they are about not having enough to do.

But more worrying is Americans' fears over Social Security: Only 11 percent are very confident that Social Security will be there at their retirement. 35 percent are somewhat confident, while fully 45 percent are not confident at all that Social Security will be there for them.

Part of Social Security should be security, the knowledge that real wealth is being accumulated for your retirement. Social Security today cannot provide real security because the current system does not build wealth. The current system is built on political promises. This latest poll shows that most Americans don't think those promises are worth very much.

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