Once again President George W. Bush is trying to buy votes in America by appealing to his perceived idea that our generation has a need for greed.
Historically, America has always been a society that takes care of those who have made their contribution to society and moved on to retirement. The fact that our federal government takes a little bit of money out of our paychecks now, puts it into a program called Social Security and then pays out a guaranteed amount to us later is one of the biggest things that makes ours a unique and caring society.
Now, though, that program is being challenged, as it is projected to run out of money in about thirty years.
In a very “Bushian way,” the president has his own unique solution to this problem. Under the Bush Plan, citizens would be allowed to put money into their own investment accounts and reap possibly big benefits instead of relying on the guaranteed amount from the government.
The fact that people who are retired live their lives based on their Social Security checks eats at the Republican Party. Internally, they have mistakenly placed a social stigma on Social Security and tried to put it in the same category as welfare, which they think is taken advantage of by people looking for handouts.
For Bush, any change to the way Social Security is currently administered will be a tough sell to the older, religious people who re-elected him this past November. To counter this and gain support for his plan, which he calls privatization (another flashy little word the public relations department came up with), Bush has moved from promoting the heartland values and morals of middle America to preying on perhaps the one thing that can get a college student’s attention: money.
Under the usual Bush guise of misinformation and lies, he has talked about giving the young people a chance to create their own “nest egg.” During his many recent stops at college campuses his “get your own money” speeches and vague details as to how exactly it will work have confused many.
Let’s clear up the confusion once and for all, as once again Bush has proved he is the rich man’s president. It is a plan by the rich and for the rich. Investing large amounts of money may yield bigger returns, but for someone who is working a job on a middle class salary, the hassle of investing and managing your own money simply would not be worth it in the least when compared to something guaranteed that provides the alternative, and that is not mentioning the risk involved.
Anytime you invest money, whether it is in stocks, bonds, CDs, etc. – it’s a risk. For someone in middle or lower class America it may not be a risk they can afford to take, especially when something guaranteed is on the table. The necessity of Social Security also becomes clear here.
For some people who have that little extra money to invest, they will invest it in indulgences and vices. Then when they turn of age to retire they will have nothing. Social Security is that fail-safe net that catches them. That is its dire importance.
Interestingly, while Bush has focused his public relations efforts on why privatization is the right thing to do, he has left out other alternatives, which to me make more sense. For example, those who are extremely rich do not need to claim their Social Security benefits.
If the Bush Administration were serious about cleaning up the trash that takes advantage of Social Security, they would put in place a rule that states that if you have over half a million dollars of assets, you are not eligible to claim your benefits. That way, no one would get hurt, as they already have enough money, and the extra revenue could be used to cover any shortages.
Social Security is what it is – society taking care of and giving security to those who have made their contribution. While we as college students are the ones this play is targeted for, we must not allow ourselves to fall victim to a slick corporate oil salesman.
As an old wise saying once said, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” There’s no pun in that.