« Better Retirement Plans Than Social Security | Main | Now this is a "crisis" »

March 13, 2005

Yes Virginia, there is a Social Security Crisis

If you have any doubt that there is a Social Security crisis, consider cancer. A tumor starts growing long before its presence is detected. The patient doesn’t die the day that the diagnosis is made. But when the doctor tells you that you have cancer, it is a crisis. Everyone knows that action is required and there is no time to waste. Social Security was a benign program when it was created in the 1930s. But in 21st Century America, it has become a cancer. Demographics have turned Social Security (and Medicare, and Medicaid) financially and economically malignant. Now consider what happens if the response to cancer (Social Security) is denial. Patients (governments) who wait too long to confront the truth are forced to either try quack treatments (massive tax increases) that are likely to kill them (the economy) or resort to radical excision of vital tissue (massive benefit cuts). Yes, there is a Social Security crisis. And just as we would not wait until a loved one was on his deathbed to seek treatment for his cancer, we must address this crisis now. If implemented now, a system of large personal accounts coupled with sufficient reductions in guaranteed benefits will save Social Security. A few years from now, it will be too late.

Posted by Louis Woodhill at March 13, 2005 11:21 PM | Print

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.socialsecuritychoice.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/5172