If you had asked me a year ago today, "Do you think privatizing Social Security is a good idea in order to save it from crisis?" my answer would have been a hesitant and uninformed, "Sure." The experiences that I have had in the past year post-graduation have changed my worldview in a number of ways as I have embarked upon a year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) in San Francisco. Having read Kevin Boland's opinion article titled "Reforming the third rail" in the Feb. 7 edition of The Heights, I felt called to share information that was omitted from this article regarding the Social Security debate, especially since I work at a advocacy group, working for seniors and persons with disabilities, those people who are the primary recipients of Social Security income.
Since beginning my work in August, I have spent hundreds of hours studying articles and analyses of issues affecting seniors and disabled persons, the most prominent of which is Social Security. I would like to thank Mr. Boland for bringing this controversy to light in his article. As I have come to see through my work, it is too often that persons with disabilities and seniors are ignored in our society. He highlighted the projection that in 2018, the Social Security trust fund will no longer be taking in as much money as it pays out. Additionally, there is only enough money in the trust fund for payments to be paid in full until at least 2042, 38 years from now.
I would like to add a few other numbers, however, that all members of the Boston College community, young, old, and differently-abled, should be made aware in order to develop more informed positions on this matter. First, if nothing at all is done in regards to Social Security, it will not be bankrupt in 2042. It will be able to make upwards of 73 percent of payments for an additional three decades. This situation is not the imminent "crisis" that the president has repeatedly described. Second, the cost of changing the system to include privatized accounts has been estimated as high as $2 trillion. This transition could not be done by a government that currently owes more than $7.6 trillion in debt without borrowing more money from other sources and increasing its debt. Thirdly, it is important to know that the cost of maintaining private accounts is 20 times higher than the current cost to administer the privatized program. Social Security recipients would foot the bill by diminishing their payments from the program.
Spring Break
