2005 Articles

Privatizing Survivors, Abandoning Children [Op-Ed]

Cauthen, Nancy K.

Despite Social Security’s undeniable success at providing income protection for families, we now face national proposals that would dramatically alter the program. Creating private accounts to replace part of the current system represents a radical departure from the program’s original design. Proponents argue that such accounts would ultimately provide greater security.

But security for whom? What about child beneficiaries—how would they be affected? What about surviving spouses of workers who die, and disabled workers and their families? What about Social Security’s original promise that hard-working people and their families would not be consigned to destitution simply because of early death or disability? These questions have barely been acknowledged, let alone addressed.