Background

To put Social Security’s financial crisis in perspective, just consider that if no changes are made in the system it will be more than $12 trillion short of paying its projected benefits over the next 75 years. Oregonians alone will bear more than $141 billion of that cost one way or the other.

Social Security has become such a burden on the American people because it depends on current workers to fund current retiree benefits. Sixteen workers supported each retiree in 1950, but there are only three workers per retiree today, and there will be only two in 2030. This demographic trend guarantees that if we do nothing, we will either see massive benefit cuts or huge tax increases, or both.

The best way to ensure good benefits for future retirees is to transition now from a pay-as-you-go system to one in which workers fund their own retirement accounts with real assets.

Cascade began talking about the Social Security crisis in 1996 when we brought José Piñera to Portland. He was the architect of Chile’s successful Social Security reforms in the 1980s.

1n 1997 Cascade advocated, and the Oregon legislature passed, a resolution to Congress which would allow states to opt out of the Social Security System and design their own retirement systems. A similar measure later passed in Colorado.

In 2005 Cascade brought former Minnesota Democratic congressman Tim Penny to Portland. He served as a member of President Bush’s bipartisan Commission to Strengthen Social Security. That same year Cascade’s Steve Buckstein was invited by Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden to be part of a town hall panel discussing Social Security. His remarks, Social Security’s Titanic, are linked below.

Must Read Publications On This Topic

• The SMART Way To Save Social Securityby Bina Patel, February 2008
• Oregonians Can Help Reform Social Securityby Steve Buckstein, February 2008
• Social Security’s Titanic
• The New Oregon Option: Opting Out of Social Security