Social Security is the most successful and effective income security program in our nation’s history. Nearly 80 years after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that it would provide “protection against the hazards and vicissitudes of life,” Social Security now insures 90 percent of all Americans against loss of income. Social Security keeps millions of Americans out of poverty and provides all Americans with the peace of mind that they will not become destitute if their family loses its primary source of income due to retirement, disability, or death.
But conservatives want to dismantle the nation’s greatest progressive achievement, and they want to enlist Millennials to do it.
Conservative politicians and outspoken 1-percenters are on a mission to convince young people that Social Security amounts to “generational theft.” According to these doomsayers, seniors are stealing from young people by collecting Social Security benefits and burdening young generations with future taxes that will be so astronomical as to leave them bankrupt. Therefore, these alarmists claim, we must cut Social Security benefits in order to save young Americans from future economic peril.
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