Introduction
The current social security system is not in an ideal state at the present period of time; it requires much work and improvement; however, it should not be replaced by a mandatory private pension system. Social security is now facing many problems – , inadequate financing and the demographic position in the contemporary period influencing the distribution of retirement payment negatively are only a tiny part of the whole.
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The main problem contributing negatively to the social security organization is that the payments are issued not according to the work done by the retiree during his/her working age, but according to the summative salary of people working at the present period of time. For this reason, it does not matter whether the retiree earned much during the working age – his retirement depends only on how much people are earning now.
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The researchers and analysts in the sphere of social care state that the nation is undergoing the demographic recession which will worsen in the nearest future. The major influence on the demographic tendencies is said to be produced by the baby boom of 1950s – a much greater number of infants being born as compared to the average statistics shaped the demographic picture of the country for more than 50 years, thus changing it right now again – the baby boomers are now retiring, becoming not the active tax payers but the ones who need taking care of by the state. According to the information provided by the Social Security Reform Center, the percentage relations between working people and retirees used to be 3.3 workers per retiree in 2005 and decreased to 2 workers (Social Security’s Problem). The decrease in the percentage of the working age population is going to go on decreasing, thus urging the government to take urgent action (some ways to solve the growing problem may be to increase income taxes of allocate more governmental funds for social security) in order to be able to make retirement payouts regularly and fully.
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However, there is an alternative that can help in avoiding the inadequate payoffs for different categories of people – it is the establishment of personal retirement account (PRA):
These accounts would give them more control over how to structure their income and allow them to build a nest egg that could be used for emergencies during retirement, used to start a business, or left to their families. (Finding Solutions)
The innovation seems to be attractive from the point of view of both the governmental profit and the personal profit for each person who wants to secure his/her future. But the system proposed requires a very complex change and a set of adjustments that seem to be impossible. One more problem faced together with the introduction of the system of such type is the issue of coverage.
Conclusion
Surely, the system is attractive for those citizens of the working age who have a stable, a profitable and prestigious job. They will have adequate pension savings and will provide their well being without any doubts. But what should the government then do with the underemployed, unemployed, and challenged people, the ones who will not be able to earn enough money to secure the end of their lives? This question still remains unsolved, so meanwhile the system of social security cannot find a compromising point to provide everyone with adequate coverage. According to the opinion of Norman and Dilley, “the lower overall level of retirement income that would likely result from a private account system would vitiate the effect of universal coverage” (17).
Even now, under the condition of overall coverage on the basis of tax revenues from the population of working age retirees still get partial coverage (due to inadequate amount of costs received from taxation). Consequently, the transition to the mandatory private retirement system will generate even more problems with payment of pensions, causing the most unprotected groups of population to become affected again. This way, the only outcome of the social system reform at the present period of time seems to be negative.
Works Cited
Norman, P. Stein and Patricia E. Dilley. Leverage, linkage, and leakage: Problems with the private pension system and how they should inform the Social Security reform debate, 2001, 17 pp. Web.
“Finding Solutions”. Social Security Reform Center, (2009).
“Social Security’s Problem”. Social Security Reform Center, (2009). Web.
Bonus
The people helping each other in the streets in the bad weather may do this for different reasons: either they do not want to stick to one place and fail to get to some place they initially were aiming to; or they want to achieve this goal and help other people at the same time. From the point of view of a functionalist John Stuart Mill it is a pure necessity, the personal utility people cannot drive because of the problem with the snow. This is why they help not other people, but themselves, as without this help they will not be able to move further. From the point of view of Immanuel Kant the action is of course virtuous and moral as people do not only help themselves, but become kinder and more helpful in the hard times when their help is needed. Thus, the ethics of mutual help and support comes to the fore.