OPINION:
Social Security is unsustainable without serious restructuring (“Feds want us to live like children,” Commentary, Thursday). A major obstacle is our own president, who refuses to makes cuts to the program and publicly scoffs at privatization proposals.
Solutions to the Social Security problem are being shunned in Washington for many reasons, foremost among them because the government will see its slush fund, from which it deceitfully continues to divert funds, shrink dramatically. Additionally, empowering people with fiscal responsibility ultimately makes them less dependent on the government. Likewise, people choosing to switch their funds to private accounts would expose and hasten Social Security’s impending insolvency, which the government continues to deny.
Yet despite the scare tactics and dishonest rhetoric that ensues, we have an obligation to keep trying. The Social Security problem will continue to fester as it has for the past 10 years. For young workers already disadvantaged by a dismal employment situation, Social Security promises low returns for the long term - at most 1.5 percent annually. If those who spurn reform don’t wake up, they will hasten a monetary meltdown, and in the end, the returns undisputedly will be zero or negative.
It is outrageous that our leaders continue to politicize this issue and compromise our financial security for personal gain.
ALAN J. DLUGASH
New York
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