Social Security

President Bush has promised to address the fact that Social Security can not survive for our young people unless some changes are made. His widely stated view is that our younger workers should have the OPTION to put a small portion (usually projected to be 2%) of their "contribution" into personal accounts which could be invested in stocks or bonds and thereby grow over the next decades to levels which would not otherwise be available when these workers retire. Current recipients, contrary to the demogoguery advanced by the liberals, would not be affected in any way.
The main drawback to the personal accounts proposals is that we have become dependant on current social security payments to pay current recipients since Johnson put these monies into the current accounts budget. A decrease resulting from young workers diversion of money into personal retirement accounts would in essence increase the budget deficit. Any revision to the current situation must address this fact. I am not sure how much of an effect it would have on the total budget, but I wonder how many current social security recipients would voluntarily permit the contributions of their children to be deducted from their current social security checks. Few of us would just give the government money, but if we knew it was going directly into a retirement account of our children, participation might be significant. In addition, with some PR encouragement, senior citizens who do not have children but do have other retirement funds might be willing to "adopt" a specific young worker and let a portion of their current social security funds be directed into his or her retirement account. Just a thought.