Youth have big stake in Social Security
By
David Hoskins
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.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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