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This final participation exercise requires the most long-ranging thinking for young students. For most young voters, Social Security probably sounds like a "Seniors Issue," but the young have the most at stake in the possible future breakdown of the system, since it will happen when they retire if nothing is done now to fix it. This project will also show them the value of statistics and projecting trends to evaluating their personal futures. After researching the issue, students should write their own congressional delegation, members of the appropriate committees, and the appropriate sub-divisions within the Social Security Department.
Social Security
For most college students, social security benefits are so far in the future that they seem barely worth a second thought. Indeed, recent polls indicate that many college-age Americans are not even counting on social security as part of their retirement income. Some young people say the social security system will not be around when they retire. A larger number say they will not have a financial need for social security benefits when they reach retirement age.
The social security system should not be so quickly dismissed. For one thing, it has relieved many young adults of the financial burden of aging parents. There was a time in America when responsibility for the economic well-being of the elderly fell largely on their children. Now the federal government through its social security and Medicare systems bears most of this responsibility. And it has exercised that responsibility far more effectively than families ever did. At one time, nearly half of America's elderly lived in poverty. Now only about 10 percent do so. For many of the nation's elderly, monthly social security checks are the primary reason they live above the poverty line.
Social security is also available to young people who have the misfortune of losing one or both parents while they are still economically dependent. Many Americans are not aware that surviving family members receive social security benefits in some situations. Among who are aware of it are the several million Americans who have had a portion of their college education funded with money received through social security.
Another reason that young adults should care about social security is that it helps fuel the U.S. economy and, with that, helps create jobs. About forty million people each month receive a social security check. Most of them over the course of the month spend all or nearly all of it, thus contributing to the demand for goods and services that stimulates production and employment.
Finally, even the most promising retirement plans can go awry, leaving people thankful when they do finally reach retirement age that they have social security to back them up. Until 2002, employees of the Enron Corporation— America's seventh largest firm—were anticipating comfortable retirements. The Enron stock in their individual pension plans was in many cases worth $1 million or more. When Enron collapsed from illegal financial schemes, the employees found out, almost overnight, that the value of their stock portfolios had fallen to almost nothing. Social security was the only retirement plan of value that remained.
Many scholars and commentators consider the social security system the most successful federal domestic program in the nation's history. It is a program worth caring about.
From page 529 of Patterson's American Democracy 7th edition
Yahoo Guide to Social Security Reformhttp://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Finance_and_Investment/Financial_Planning/Retirement/Social_Security/Reform/
Yahoo Guide to the Social Security Administrationhttp://dir.yahoo.com/Government/U_S__Government/Agencies/Independent/Social_Security_Administration__SSA_/
Microsoft Network Search of Social Security Reform Resourceshttp://msnsearch.com/results.aspx?q=social+security+reform&FORM=SMCRT
NetAction's Virtual Activist Training Coursehttp://www.netaction.org/training/index.htmlDetailed course on how to be an activist.
Office of Government Ethicshttp://www.usoge.gov/
Government Resources on the Webhttp://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/govweb.htmlAnnotated list of federal, state, international, foreign, political science, and statistical resources. (University of Michigan)
Thomashttp://thomas.loc.gov/Federal legislative tracking service from the U.S. Library of Congress. The home page also has a link to state and local resources.
Searching for the Meaning of: The American Democracy Connecting the text and classroom with first-hand experienceSee pgs. 528-529 and refer back to Chapters 9, and 13
