Show rM0'01tM11110 ffmwinElin EMMEinaillIMMIE OMML Do you think the money you put into Social Security is yours? It is not It's supporting omeone else's retirement right now :Ind one day there may be no money left for you So you might ask tt e 4 r -- 1 1 A i f4 t q I i money! It's not the government's money! They can't take it away from us!" Unhappily she was only partly right While Americans of my generation have paid into Social Security through payroll deductions for most of our working Lives the money we are taking back is not our own It comes from the workers of today not yesterday and that is the main reason we're in trouble Olivia is not alone in thinking that the money we get back today is the Lame money we paid in over the years That is one of many common assumptions about Social Security that is either misleading or just plain false For instance: Social Security is not a "trust fund" It is a contract between generations It's not some magical government bank where a nest egg is building for each American society since the Ci Nil War Compare: In 1945 for each of the one million beneficiaries collecting Social Security benefits them were 46 wctkers contribunrig By 1950 just five years !Mel coverage included so many new categories of beneficiaries (such r as salesmen and home workers) that there were only 16 workers for every beneficiary Today for each of the 41 million individuals collecting Social Security benefits only three workers are contributing By the se -born time the baby boomers--thofrom 1946 to 1964—begin to retire en MaSst (around :To) there will be only two workers contributing for each of the 70 million beneficiaries collecting door-to-doo- Already entitlement programs Social Security Medicare and How The Government Is Spending Your Money 1 Lil Jr or y ) ' 4 '' 1 11)c1 rereito de ) )arft 1 - Vil i :4" 7 X I y 44 '':' ' ' ' ''! 11 '4 ' 4: ' - 4 It?' i BY JAC K ANDERSON 111S MAY BE TI IE MOST LM:PORTANT story I have ever written It is certainly the most distressing As President Clinton takes the helm and steers America a turbulence looms toward the mid-'90- s over our financial future Unchecked it could whirl up a storm that drastically upsets our way of life In a government that loves to spend money there is no program more sacrrd than Social Security Forma House Speaker Tip O'Neill said it is the "third COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY EDDIE ADAMS rail of politics—touch it and you die" Since President Franklin D Roosevelt signed Social Security into law on Aug 14 1935 it has worked according to plan—as a contract under which workers pay the government an earnings tax that is redeemed during their retirement But unless wise action averts it a confrontation is coming It will be generational not racial or ethnic It will be between workers and retirees and it will embody the greatest polarization in ' ' Social Security 20 104 !Mk metal was 14taway cossfAceml I ictg 16 compasstat:oal 12 Doton 1 'IN-T 2 I 1112 111A Aid Medka t 0 11111W11111111" other' 3 "-Medic- 5 aid The 1913 hooka p Entitiemeed programs (shown in white) Wolfing Sackd Security inceree security Ideldicswe and hiredicidd eat up 49 of 41"017 federal tax Aim Moon Budget Baselines IGsbnical Data and Alternathes for the Future Mee of biaaagement and Budget Treasury Depadment and Council of Econor-- Jc AdVisersi Medicaid unemployment compensation and veterans' benefits) eat up 49 of every federal tax dollar This leads me to say at age 70 what no one in my generation wants to hear: To stave off a national crisis those of us who have adequate means must agree to give up our Social Security pensions The first time she heard me say this Olivia my wife of 43 years literally screamed her objection: "We've contributed to that fund all our lives! It's our worker's retirement Every Social Security benefit is paid with payroll taxes from current workers: Taxes on our paychecks paid for our parents' retirements taxes on our children's checks pay for ours The problem is we usually get back from Social Security far more money than we put in It always has been that way The first-evrecipient of a Social Security check—Ida Mae Fuller of Ludlow Vt—paid a grand total of $22 into the system By the time she died at 99 er PACE 4 'FEBRUARY 21 1993 PARADE MAGAZINE |