Stevens Point News

Main Menu

  • Covid 19
  • Sports
    • Sports News
    • High School Sports Scores
    • Wisconsin Rapids Rafters
  • Crime
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Obits
  • Contact
    • Subscribe
  • Classifieds
    • View Ads
    • Place Ads
  • Legal Ads
    • Our Legals
    • Statewide
  • E-Edition
    • Stevens Point City Times

logo

Stevens Point News

  • Covid 19
  • Sports
    • Sports News
    • High School Sports Scores
    • Wisconsin Rapids Rafters
  • Crime
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Opinion
  • Obits
  • Contact
    • Subscribe
  • Classifieds
    • View Ads
    • Place Ads
  • Legal Ads
    • Our Legals
    • Statewide
  • E-Edition
    • Stevens Point City Times
Commentary
Home›Commentary›Commentary: Social Security remains outside government’s attention

Commentary: Social Security remains outside government’s attention

By STEVENS POINT NEWS
August 9, 2018
880
0
Share:

By Gene Kemmeter

Is anyone going to take action to protect Social Security for the future?

The program began in 1935 through a law passed by Congress and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression to offer emergency relief conditions to the elderly whose poverty rates exceeded 50 percent. The funds for the program are realized by a tax split between the employers and workers.

Republicans have long offered the creation of personal accounts – money invested in stocks and bonds – as a supplement to guaranteed government payments, but support for the proposal has wavered because of the volatility of investments through private vendors instead of guaranteed results.

In the last presidential election, candidates from both parties pledged to their elderly supporters and grandparents that they would keep Social Security going in order to win their votes. They’ve been doing that for years, despite repeated warnings that the system needs reinforcement, or it will run out of funds in the near future.

Retirees are finding the increasing cost of health care is really eating away any annual increased revenues based on the annual inflation rate. Plus the cost of supplemental insurance premiums is rising, along with increased deductibles.

This week, another troubling study indicates that vanishing pensions, soaring medical expenses and inadequate savings are hitting older Americans who had been planning for retirement in the last three decades as the government and employers has worked to shift the financial risk to individuals.

New research indicates the rate of people 65 and older filing for bankruptcy is three times what it was in 1991. From February 2013 to November 2016, there were 3.6 bankruptcy filers per 1,000 people 65 to 74; in 1991, there were 1.2. They also represent a widening slice of all filers: 12.2 percent of filers are now 65 or older, up from 2.1 percent in 1991.

This situation comes during a time when they have waited longer for full Social Security benefits, replaced their employer-provided pensions with 401(k) savings plans and assumed more out-of-pocket spending on health care. They’ve also felt the impact of declining incomes, whether in retirement or leading up to it.

The personal savings plans failed to reach expectations pitched by investors, particularly during the Recession, and the burgeoning cost of health care has reduced those savings after serious illnesses struck.

Social Security is a pay-as-you go system, where the money contributed by today’s workers and their employers pays for retirees’ benefits. The separate personal accounts would leave a hole in the system that would have to be filled by heavy borrowing, plus raises the issue of who guarantees that investment will be a reasonable alternative, not subject to the fluctuations of today.

Will there be even more elderly living in poverty in the future through failure of the government to act?

Tagskemmeternewssocial security
Previous Article

Commentary: Thoughts on ‘modern food’

Next Article

Cinema Spotlight: Christopher Robin

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Related articles More from author

  • EditorialTop Stories

    Suzy Favor’s Private Life Details Poison for the Mind, Society

    December 26, 2012
    By STEVENS POINT NEWS
  • CommentaryNewsTop Feature

    Residents need to work together to end discrimination

    June 8, 2018
    By STEVENS POINT NEWS
  • Commentary

    Roundabout construction will keep north side bottled up for months

    June 14, 2018
    By STEVENS POINT NEWS
  • Hometown

    Sand County Bench returns to Stevens Point Sculpture Park

    June 25, 2018
    By STEVENS POINT NEWS
  • Commentary

    Celebration of nation’s independence offers local spin

    June 29, 2018
    By STEVENS POINT NEWS
  • CommentaryNewsTop Feature

    Will parking solutions cause neighborhoods to dissolve?

    July 5, 2018
    By STEVENS POINT NEWS

Leave a reply Cancel reply

High School Sports

Go to High School Sports

Free SP Newsletter

  • Sports

  • Commentary

  • Chargers sneak by Amherst with goal-line stand

    By Jacob Heid
    September 18, 2023
  • Cardinals use second half to pass by Rosholt

    By Jacob Heid
    September 15, 2023
  • Nicolet National Bank senior spotlight: Sam Carpenter, Pacelli cross country

    By Jacob Heid
    September 15, 2023
  • Cardinals rally to beat Hornets in conference thriller

    By Jacob Heid
    September 13, 2023
  • Kazda nets two to put Falcons past Pacelli

    By Jacob Heid
    September 8, 2023
  • Pat Wood

    From the publisher: Christmas and Hanukkah

    By Kris Leonhardt
    December 24, 2022
  • Ice fishing contest Reels in $1,500 for Portage County Literacy Council

    By Taylor Hale
    March 17, 2022
  • Kemmeter Column: County celebrates year after quarantine

    By Taylor Hale
    July 12, 2021
  • Isherwood Column: Great engineering projects two

    By Taylor Hale
    July 11, 2021
  • Shoes News Graphic

    Show Column: Odd Jobs

    By Taylor Hale
    July 9, 2021

About Us


The Portage County Gazette is published every Friday by Multi Media Channels. It is locally-owned, locally-operated and locally-written. Subscriptions are $64 annually, delivered via the U.S. Postal Service.


To subscribe, go www.shopmmclocal.com/product/portage-county-gazette or call 715-258-4360

  • PO Box 408, Waupaca WI 54981
  • (715) 343-8045
  • News editor: [email protected]
Copyright © 2022 Multi Media Channels LLC.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted without the prior written consent of Multi Media Channels LLC.
×