numbers of active contributors to the Social Security program, and helped to keep the worker/retiree ratio stable over the past 30 years. If we significantly decrease the rate of immigration, there will be a lower influx of new, younger workers to contribute to the Social Security system.
Economics plays an important part in the projections of solvency. The past few years have been ones of higher unemployment and consequently less income taxed for contributions to the program. If employment increases and wages grow, contri-butions will also increase. At the same time, if unemployment rises, there will be a decline in worker contributions. The cycle of employment affects the solvency of the program.
It would be foolish not to attend to the solvency concerns of the Social Security program. Even though the decisions are politically difficult, acting sooner rather than later means that the changes will not have to be as great. And in perspective, the 34-year horizon of 2007 is far better than the 10-year horizon of the 1980s. This means we have ample time to amend the system to ensure its financial health for decades to come.
PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY
One of the most contested ideas for improving the Social Security system is to privatize parts of it. This means that instead of the current system, in which all contributions are collectively held by the federal government, each person could earmark a part of his or her contributions for a private program. Advocates of the privatization of Social Security argue that creating privately invested accounts would encourage more individual responsibility and offer workers the opportunity to earn larger benefits. The idea behind privatization is that a portion of the money an individual would pay into the current Social Security system would be diverted to a private investment account. The growth and returns on the account would accrue to the individual. The performance of the investment would rest with the market and with the savvy of the individual in managing his or her investment.
Critics of the privatization approach worry that those who understand finan-cial markets and investment will do well, but those who do not will be worse off. Private investments would also be subject to more risk, stock market volatility, and high fees for administration of the funds. The premise of the Social Security Act was to find a safety net that would be there when the vicissitudes of the mar-ketplace went awry. The market collapse and economic upheaval of the 1930s demonstrated how unstable the marketplace can be. Privatization would return the system to that unpredictability. Privatization would be a major step away from the principles of the New Deal, which built a guaranteed benefit for the elderly, their survivors, and people with disabilities. Furthermore, critics argue that the option to privatize one’s investments is already available and that millions of people choose this option already. They also argue that it is not responsible to risk the savings of those least likely to afford the volatility of the private market, low earners who are disproportionately unskilled in understanding the investment market. The economic downturn and steep stock market decline of 2007–2009