Social Security Politics

Proposals for solving the problem of Social Security have been around for years. Even half of what they collect in Social Security could provide a better private benefit than the public system. This would leaving the other half to fund a better safety net than we currently have.

Articles are roughly in chronological order. Skip to the bottom to see the most recent articles.

	Privatize Social Security (January 1999 NAPFA Journal) Social Security is a very poor investment for workers to fund their retirement.
	Letter to the Wall Street Journal 12/3/2004 Consider the massive mistakes made by the government in the overall design and of Social Security in the mid-1930s.
	Social Security Can Be Saved This plan uses the short-term surpluses through 2018 to allow private savings accounts.
	Social Security Is Hopelessly Broken Most Americans have a mistaken belief that they have earned their Social Security benefits by their payroll tax contributions into the Social Security system during their working years. This is a severe misconception.
	The Alternatives to Privatizing Social Security Are Worse – Part 1 My column on privatizing social security generated a great deal of outrage and name calling, but no real alternate proposal. That isn’t surprising since the alternatives to privatization all have dire unintended consequences.
	The Alternatives to Privatizing Social Security Are Worse – Part 2 Running out of money is not an option. In the end, some political calculation will be made, and it will have all the problems that collectivism breeds. Only from the starting point of individual freedoms can effective solutions be found.
	Why We Need to Fix the Social Security Program Now Every four years, the soundness of the Social Security program is reviewed.
	Why We Need to Fix the Social Security Program Now (Speech) Address by George Marotta, Research Fellow (Emeritus), Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Delivered at the Carmel Valley (CA) Manor, Issues Meeting, March 21, 2005.
	Part 1: Social Security Is Still Broken If you think the $700 billion bailout of the mortgage crisis was expensive, wait until we need to bail out Social Security. Between 2037 and 2075 the Social Security program is projected to run deficits totaling $30 trillion. And annual shortfalls are projected to start as soon as 2017.
	Part 2: Privatization Could Fix Social Security Privatizing the system could break the political deadlock between cutting future benefits and raising payroll taxes. We can have both our benefits and lower taxes if we finally admit that socializing retirement was a mistake and once again trust in the power of free markets.
	Radio: The Impending Social Security Disaster David John Marotta was the featured guest on The Rob Schilling Show (1070 WINA) on Tuesday, October 10th, 2008 from 1-2pm for an hour long phone-in discussion show.
	Neither Rationale for Social Security is Working Social Security has been called the third rail of politics. Good thing I’m not a politician. Someone has to make the tough decisions.
	Means-Test and Privatize Social Security We need to move beyond good intentions and craft public policy that actually works.
	Is Social Security Stealing Your Chance Of Being A Millionaire? But even if William had blindly invested in 40% bonds, his portfolio would still have grown to $1,186,472, a yearly income of $52,561 rising with inflation.