all other domestic spending. Entitlements are growing faster than any other part of the federal government budget. . . Social Security payments are growing in real terms at about 6 percent a year, but Medicare and Medicaid are growing at double-digit rates (Miller 280-281).
The problem is increasing as the size of subsequent generations increases, and this means that while the current generation of near-retirees is likely to be able to avoid an impoverished old age even with their inadequate private savings, the baby-boomers will not be so fortunate:
On its present trajectory, Social Security will be unable to sustain today's benefit levels by the time the boomers shuffle off to shuffleboard. Far fewer younger workers, too, can count on receiving company-paid pension benefits, since employers are increasingly leaving their employees to assume responsibility for their own retirements (Richman 48).
The baby-boom baby-boom generation will find that the system is not such a good deal. A 40-year-old male now will pay about $175,000 more in taxes than he will receive in benefits. The generation after that will find the situation even worse and will pay more than $220,000 more in taxes than will be received in benefits (Miller 291). Recently it was noted that the system is running out of money earlier than originally predicted (Pear A1).
Social security is a series of public programs designed to protect workers and their families from income losses associated with old age, illness, unemployment, or death. The term may also refer to a broad system of support for all those who, for whatever reason, are unable to maintain themselves. In the United States the term refers specifically to a complex of national programs that began to evolve with the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935 and that are now administered by the Social Security Administration. The principal programs are: Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insu...