by Liz McGuire

Created on: June 21, 2007

The main reason Social Security should not be abolished is the fact that life never turns out the way you planned. Social Security is an insurance program meant to provide a safety net to keep America's workers out of poverty. That task is often ignored in today's popular "ownership society" dogma.

An often ignored fact is that Social Security does not limit benefits to retirees. It provides disability benefits to nearly 7 million workers, as well as their spouses and children. So when you can no longer work, before you have acquired that nest egg, or your medical costs have whittled that nest egg down to nothing, you have something to fall back on.

Additionally, Social Security provides benefits for children and some spouses of deceased workers. Almost 1.9 million children and students were receiving Social Security benefits under this program at the end of 2006. As a recipient of this benefit in my last year of college, it allowed me to finish my studies on schedule, which, in turn allowed me to get a well-paying job earlier to start paying in to the system myself.

It is estimated that between 13 to 16 million seniors would be below the poverty level without a Social Security check. Without Social Security, we, as a nation, would have to help them out financially anyway. Or let them starve, of course.

Detractors of Social Security offer compelling arguments for abolishing Social Security:

- "I can save and manage my retirement money better than the government can". This is a solid argument until one reflects on the not-so-stellar performance of financial asset management in the dot.com years. When the bubble burst, we saw the effects of uninformed and uneducated investors who had grabbed any stock that was rising, regardless of the companies' financial health.

- "If you work hard, and are responsible, you can save all the money you need for retirement". Maybe so. But when disease or tragedy strikes before you've amassed your nest egg, what will you do then? Bad things do happen to good people.

-"My money is being used to pay for current retirees. There will be nothing left by the time I reach retirement age." This is true. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system and the burden is higher for today's workers. That burden will increase without immediate changes. This is why we need to do some serious tweaking to the system. No one can accurately predict what direction the economy will take in the next 10 to 20 years. The current administration and the GAO differ on estimates by millions of dollars. There are proposals that would limit or eliminate the projected deficit and they should be honestly debated and the best solution should be enacted.

One thing is for certain. If we abolish Social Security, we will have nothing comparable to take its place. We tweaked it in 1983, and we can continue to alter it to fit current and future demographic and financial trends. To abolish it entirely is irresponsible.

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