Social Security’s Importance
Although many media sources hasten to point out that Social Security will not be sufficient for many retirees to enjoy a retirement completely free of financial anxiety, the fact remains that the benefits represent a means to “keep an estimated 22.1 million people out of poverty,” explains Observer-Reporter’s Gary Boatman in a post on observer-reporter.com. Citing comments from work by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and The Urban Institute, Boatman comments on the return-on-investment projections for lower- and medium-income workers and women in particular, noting that Social Security “is one of the few retirement income sources that has a cost-of-living adjustment. This helps you keep up with inflation and protect your purchasing power.” His article also cites the importance of making informed decisions when aging in to the program, an issue that the AMAC Foundation’s Social Security Advisory Service agrees with completely.
While Boatman’s article extols the positives associated with Social Security, readers need to remember that there’s a cloud on the horizon in the form of the program’s looming insolvency threat. This year–2018–marks the tipping point at which Social Security’s cash flow has reversed: there is more being paid out than is coming into the program through payroll taxes, income taxes, and interest on reserves. Absent legislative action, the program’s Trustees project that the reserves being used to make up the difference will be fully depleted by 2034 (possibly sooner if a major recession were to occur), with the result being an across-the-board benefit cut of an estimated 21%. The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) is aggressively campaigning to ward off this threat, carrying it’s Social Security Guarantee to congressional representatives repeatedly with a goal of gaining attention to the problem. AMAC’s plan would strengthen and modernize Social Security and sustain it for multiple generations to come.