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Youth have big stake in Social Security

Published Feb 13, 2005 5:18 PM

The developing struggle over Social Security is as relevant to youth as to seniors.

Along with pension benefits to retirees, Social Security has provided income for the disabled and the children of deceased workers since 1935.

More than 3 million children are dependent upon SSI payments for their housing, food and clothing.

At least 5 million disabled persons depend on SSI funds.

And, of course, Social Security benefits provide the sole source of income for over one-third of all retirees.

The numbers are truly staggering, but the principle is not. Tens of millions of youths, the elderly and the disabled depend on Social Security as their only source of income. Losing benefits would push most of these individuals from relative to absolute poverty as they struggle to find sources of food and housing.

The Bush administration is asking them to risk it all in a privatization scheme that encourages young workers to invest in the same stock market that crashed in the 1930s, propelling the United States into the Great Depression.

Young workers targeted by Bush's plan stand to lose as much as the current retirees, who could see their benefits slashed in order to contain costs during the transition from public to private accounts. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank close to the AFL-CIO, any attempt at privatization will result in "enormous across-the-board benefit cuts, whether or not a worker decides to open a private account."

This type of plan has very distinct and real implications for young workers. First, it is their parents and grandparents who will lose a significant portion of income from privatization. Young workers will be expected to pick up the shortfall in caring for elderly family members without a corresponding reduction in the Social Security portion of their payroll tax. This will mean longer working hours and increased stress as young people feel the burden of privatization in their own wallets.

The Bush administration is asking young workers to bear this burden in order to secure the program's solvency for their own retirement. But in fact they will have less to show for their private investment than retirees currently enjoy under the federal system.

Bush insists that a crisis in Social Security is imminent. He should know. The Bush administration purposefully engineered the program's deficit by raiding the $1.8-trillion Social Security surplus in order to provide tax breaks for the wealthy and finance the occupation of Iraq. Despite his attempt to bankrupt the system, full payments are still projected until the year 2042, when a quarter reduction in benefits could be necessary to keep the fund solvent.

A simple repeal of the Bush tax cuts for those in the upper percentiles could easily cover the projected $3.7-trillion Social Security shortage.

What is the solution to the problems inherent in the system? The ruling class evidently feels bold enough to attack popular domestic programs in the midst of ongoing resistance to a foreign war. This is certainly a historical deviation from the experience during the Vietnam War, when Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon attempted to use programs such as the Great Society in order to divide the working class and smash domestic dissent.

The ruling class is placing a bet that young people and the working class are not currently capable of resisting an assault on Social Security.

It is going to require a militant struggle, similar to the one during the 1930s that won Social Security in the first place, to push back this attack. Trade unions and leftist parties must reach out to the broader people's movement and wage a sincere battle to protect Social Security for retirees, children and the disabled.

Young workers who want to make sure that full benefits are available to them upon retirement and that their elderly family members are cared for have a key role to play in this struggle.

Revolutionary youth organizations such as Fight Imperialism--Stand Together (FIST) are struggling to end the occupation of Iraq and ensure that money is available for jobs, education, and social security--not for war. The March 19th demonstration in New York City's Central Park and elsewhere on the second anniversary of the war can help reach out to youths, the working class and the oppressed communities and demonstrate how the war abroad is directly tied to the war back here at home.

By linking these struggles together, the people can beat back the Bush administration's attacks on Social Security and other progressive programs.