illion in 1995. Most of these householders are expected to live in single-family dwellings. In the mid-1990s, 69 percent of this age group live in single-family homes; by 2000, the proportion is expected to rise to 73 percent.
Increasing numbers of persons aged 65 years old and older will put added pressures on the social security system. Just prior to and during the first term of the Reagan Administration, the federal government tumbled to the fact that the baby boom generation would one day become eligible for social security retirement benefits. When a closer look was taken, it was thought that the retirement trust funds likely would not be able to remain solvent when the baby boomers retired unless changes were made to the system. As a consequence, a new contribution structure was developed that the Reagan Administration and the Congress assured the American public would provide for the fiscal integrity of the retirement trust funds to a point at least mid-way through the twenty-first century.
Almost immediately following the revision of the social security contribution structure, however, the Reagan Administration launched a new two-pronged attack against the social security program. The first prong of this attack involved attempts to remove individuals from the beneficiary rolls, reduce the levels of social security benefits, and delay the payment of such benefits. The second prong of the Reagan Administration attack was the sacking of the social security retirement funds through a process of disinvestment. The Reagan Administration recommended and persuaded Congress to pass a law requiring trust fund surpluses to be invested in federal government securities and permitting the disinvestment of existing trust fund monies from private sector investments and reinvesting those funds in governmental securities as required to fund the federal government budget deficit. This action allowed both the Reagan Administration ...