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America Needs to Invest the Social Security Trust Fund Essay example

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America Needs to Invest the Social Security Trust Fund

Our nation ensures social welfare through Social Security. However, the United States cannot ensure the welfare of its own welfare system. To save Social Security, Americans in general do not favor an increase in the payroll tax, a cut in benefits or an increase in the retirement age. Furthermore, Americans are relying upon Social Security as their sole source of income at increasingly alarming rates. Social Security is intended to supplement retiree income, not account for 100% of it. Through elimination of the potential options, that leaves one necessary action: invest the Social Security trust fund in the stock market.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle (Social …show more content…

Examine the absolute worst case scenario: the market crashes and the $700 billion investment is worth $0. In this event, there would still be about $2 trillion in a trust fund. Furthermore, The President proposes that beneficiaries have the so-called "safety net feature of a basic, monthly retirement stipend, rather than leaving future retirees entirely at the mercy of the stock market and their own investment savvy."

Investing the Social Security trust fund in the stock market only allows us, as beneficiaries and future beneficiaries, the potential to receive benefits from a social welfare system that would otherwise risk extinction, commonly known as bankruptcy.

Of course there is the issue of who would make the actual investments. Many people are concerned that their Social Security money will be controlled by politicians who might have their own special interests or political agendas. The President proposes that the money be invested "in broad-based stock indexes similar to the Standard & Poor's Index under the control of a private Social Security Investment Board, as independent in theory as the Federal Reserve." Currently the Federal Reserve regulates and monitors the economy. To date, there have been no reports of conflict of interest within the Federal Reserve. Therefore, an independent management board for Social Security

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