Boomers: We Need To Fix Social Security

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling is leading the charge.
One that might bankrupt this country if we don’t take action and change our attitude about retirement benefits.
Oh yes... and take a pay cut, too.
Starting now and starting with Casey-Kirschling. She is known as the “first Boomer” because she was born a couple seconds after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, thus ushering in the Baby Boom generation.
On Monday, the retired school teacher from Maryland became the first person in her generation to file for Social Security benefits. She’ll start collecting her retirement paycheck from the federal government when she turns 62 on the first day of next year.
A flood of Boomers are following right behind her. It’s estimated 10,000 of us will become eligible for Social Security every day for the next two decades. In 2008 alone, 3.2 million people are expected to sign up. Eventually, it’s likely more than 70 million Boomers will be drawing Social Security checks.
The system’s Board of Trustees predicts that unless changes are made the Social Security program will go into debt in 2017 and become insolvent in 2041.
Casey-Kirschling is undeterred by those figures. She’s not waiting until she’s 65. She’s taking the early option at age 62. After filing she said, “I ‘m going to take it now because I can take it now. I’m thrilled to think that after all these years, I’m getting paid back the money I put in.”
Nothing against our retired school teacher, but I’m not sure I agree.
I think our nation has the wrong perception on Social Security. In fact, I think we’ve got it backward.
We view Social Security as a retirement fund we pay into so we can draw money out of it when we get older. However, I think it’s better if we view Social Security as a fund for the generation ahead of us. One we pay into to thank them for all those years they worked and took care of us.
That’s right, the money we have paid into the fund was really for our parents’ generation. It was to help the folks who survived the Great Depression and World War Two and then raised us during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Our retirement is being funded by the younger generations as a thank you to us for working for four decades and bringing them up. The only problem is this equation doesn’t add up.
There are 110 million members of Generations X and Y. There are 78 million of us. Right now, there are 3.3 workers paying into Social Security for every person drawing benefits. In 2031, it's estimated that ratio will be 2.1 workers for every beneficiary.
There simply won’t be enough younger people working to support all of us on Social Security and Medicare as well as pay taxes on the other programs vital to our country.
So, fellow Baby Boomers, it’s time to do the right thing. During the past two decades, we have let Social Security slide toward disaster without doing much about it.
We need to fix this fiscal train wreck and we need to do it by giving up some of what we’ve supposedly earned.
We need to cut our Social Security benefits, perhaps as much as 50 percent. And we need to raise the retirement age, maybe as high as 70.
It may seem unfair, but it’s the practical and the moral thing to do. We cannot accept all this Social Security money when we know it’s going to bankrupt the program.
We’re a smart, talented, resourceful generation. We can make this work.
Adopting this solution not only will save Social Security without raising taxes, it sets a gold star example for the rest of society. If we’re willing to sacrifice personally for the good of the nation as a whole, maybe that attitude will shift over into other segments of our communities.
What a concept. Putting others first.
It can start with the first Boomer and end with the last.