Social Security has to be fixed. Lower birth rates and longer life expectancies mean that smaller generations of workers will have to support ever-increasing populations of retirees. In 1950 there were 16 workers supporting every retired person. But today there are only three workers supporting each retiree, and when today’s 35-year-olds retire, there will be only two. The window of opportunity to rescue the system is closing – soon baby boomers will begin retiring at the rate of 10,000 a day, at which point Social Security’s costs will skyrocket.
We need to start planning for that day now. As theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “the ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”
As a concerned citizen, I urge you to start talking about the Social Security crisis facing our great country. We must solve this problem so that our children and grandchildren are not left with this terrible burden. We can solve this financial crisis by reforming our retirement system. Workers should be allowed to invest their 7.65 percent payroll tax into a personal account that they own and control. This is the best approach to achieving reform.
SANDRA AUDETTE
Everett
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