In the article published in The New York Times, Sommer (2019) focuses on research regarding social security checks for those citizens, who are retired. The issue is that the generation of baby boomers rapidly ages and retires, which sets an additional burden on the trust funds of the social security system. At the same time, there is an insufficient number of young employees, whose remuneration is used for replenishing retiree paychecks. As stated by analytics, the situation worsens since the trust funds are likely to be empty by 2034-2035. The number of retired older adults would grow by 79 million people compared to the current 49 million (Sommer, 2019). Accordingly, retirees would not be given the amount of money they were promised while working.
The identified article outlines several policies that can be introduced to resolve this situation. First, the author refers to the New York Times analysis of Social Security data and states that the reduction of retirement checks by 20% is the option. In this case, the income of retirees would be lower, leaving thousands of people in poverty. Namely, 39%-52% of this vulnerable population would have to survive (Sommer, 2019). Most of all, those people who worked for low wages would be in a disastrous position, without the opportunity to rest and having to work up to 70. Second, another option is to increase taxes for the wealthy, while also steadily increasing the retirement age. However, both of the options can be rejected by people as it was in the period of Raegan’s presidency when there was a rebellion against cutting social security checks.
The complexity of the implementation of the above options is related to the need to act, involving politics, economics, and social affairs. Sommer (2019) looks concerned about the fact that politicians prefer acting at the last minute when the crisis already happened. The author of the article cites the words of various professionals, who claim that immediate action is required to prevent the growth of people who would live in poverty within the next 15-20 years. It is possible to suggest that the author’s opinion coincides with that of the president emeritus of the Urban Institute, Robert D. Reischauer: a set of measures should be implemented to minimize the adverse impacts of the current social changes in the future. According to Applebaum and Cummins (2017) add that healthcare costs are rising, and geriatric patients need more care services, which would be one more aggravating factor. All of the authors agree that some changes in social security and healthcare programs are necessary, but specific policies are not yet identified.
In my point of view, American politicians should begin considering the ways to address the upcoming crisis now. It is always better to prevent negative consequences instead of trying to address what had already happened. I agree with Applebaum and Cummins (2017), who assume that baby boomer should now consider the ways to provide themselves after their retirement. Some of them can acquire new skills for career achievements, others can make savings. The question of cutting social security checks seems to be clear: reductions are inevitable, but it is critical to properly and timely implement policies and ensure that older adults would have adequate payments. Namely, the ways to fulfill the current deficits and find a compromise between protecting retirees and increasing taxes for workers should be found.
References
Applebaum, R., & Cummins, P. (2017). From Rock’n’Roll to Rock’n’Chair: Are baby boomers financially ready for retirement? Generations, 41(2), 88-94.
Sommer, J. (2019). Social security is staring at its first real shortfall in decades. The New York Times. Web.