Privatizing of Social Security Essay

In â€Å"Privatizing Social Security,† the author discusses the importance of privatizing social security. The author gave a brief overview of the history of social security and explained what he thinks is wrong with the system. Although the author explained the benefits of privatization, his views come off as a bit simplistic because he oversimplifies the social and economic problems that are associated with privatizing social security. In the article the author discusses how the social security trust fund will be in financial difficulty by the year 2018 if the retirement age, tax laws, and other laws associated social security do not change. The author states that the social security financial crisis will arise when the government has to pay the trust fund with treasury notes, which has led him to believe that privatization is the answer to saving the system. Although the author argues that privatization is the answer to social security crisis, it is not the best solution because it will lead to social and economic problems in the future. The main problem with the author’s argument is that he believes that privatization will allow social security funds to grow, since people will be investing their money rather than simply contributing to the fund. However the author fails to take into account that most people lack education to successfully invest money, which threatens their future economic security. The author also fails to consider that investing social security funds is the equivalent to gambling because markets rise and fall and people could potentially lose substantial amounts of retirement money if they cash out during an economic downturn. Although the author made valid points to support privatization, such as changing laws associated with social security, the author should not simplify the costs of privatization because privatizing is a gamble, which takes the security out of social security.