Michael Zgoda
ECO 202WIC F
Dr. Kelly
21 July 2018
Social Security
Heated debates surrounding the problems attached to social security have been ongoing,
and increasing for decades. As of late, the idea of social security reform has crossed party lines,
being widely agreed upon as a necessary change by both democratic and republican politicians.
However, the views regarding what aspects of social security need to be reformed in order to
benefit the American people have resulted in widespread disagreement. This paper will cover
varying views regarding the social security issue ranging from a hands off governmental
approach, to abolishing social security all-together and replacing it with a new, more innovative
system.
According to James K. Glassman, the author of the article Here’s What’s Wrong with
Social Security – “Social security stinks” (Glassman, 2005.) In his article, Glassman notes;
“Begin with the obvious. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme headed for collapse” (Glassman,
2005.) That’s a pretty austere statement, but it does hold some validity that needs to be
addressed. Today, the government deducts what is known as “social security tax” from every
working Americans paycheck. This money is then transferred to the pockets of retired
Americans. The idea is that when individuals are retired, and no longer paying into the system,
they will then benefit from the money they paid in previously. Perhaps Glassman notes the social
security system as being a ponzi scheme due to the decreasing returns retirees are garnering in
today’s society, particularly based off what was promised (Glassman, 2005.) He notes that today,
the ration in America of workers to retirees is 3-1 (Glassman, 2005.) This figure is significant in
the argument that there simply isn’t enough money coming from workers paychecks to grant
retired workers the benefits they were promised. So what is the solution to this? How can we fix
social security? According to Glassman, social security reform is a lost cause. His remedy to the
system is to abolish it completely. He describes the most logical social security fix as
“Instead, the obvious long-term solution is for Americans to fund a larger part of their
own retirements–just as they pay for their own food and clothes and shelter. That way,
they won’t have to worry whether there are enough workers to pay their bills when they
retire. They’ll pay their own bills out of their savings” (Glassman, 2005.)
However, while he finds this black and white approach to be most sensible, he does describe his
