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The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Keep your grimy hands off my money!: Social Security is fine and its critics are liars

By Anne Looser

Social Security should be left alone. When I pay my Social Security taxes, they should go right into the Social Security account, and eventually end up in my grandmother’s bank account.

President Bush and supporters of his plan to create private accounts claim that Social Security is bankrupt. They neglect to tell you that if Social Security is indeed bankrupt, it’s because the government dips into it to fund other things, such as the war in Iraq.

My mom told me Social Security has always been bankrupt. She said when she was 20 she figured it wouldn’t be there for her, either. Apparently, conservatives have been claiming it’s bankrupt for as long as 25 years.

Bush’s supporters act like poor people are going to make out big on this deal. Somehow poor people are going to have more money to save.

What?

The wages of poor people will not go up. The benefits they will receive appear to actually go down. Impoverished people will invest their benefits and therefore save money, but it is money they would already be getting.

The most troubling aspect of the reformers’ argument is that it seems to change a bit every time I hear it.

First, they wanted to privatize Social Security. Now it’s private accounts. I’m not sure what the difference is and I question if there is a difference. The language used is a bit slippery.

When the plan loses steam, supporters change the language to make it sound like we will have more control over our money.

Not even Alan Greenspan can control the market. Putting our money in the market is risky and gives us less control, not more. It puts the most vulnerable among us in a bad position. Social Security supports more than just the elderly, it’s also for the disabled and children who’ve lost their parents.

We should keep Social Security the way it is because my generation has an obligation to support my grandmother’s generation.

The program works. The problems only arise when the government steals the money to pay the Defense Department. Leave my money alone. I want it to go to my grandmother, not to Donald Rumsfeld.

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