Republicans host Social Security talk
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On Monday's College Republicans-sponsored event addressing the future of social security in the U.S., Michael Korbey from the Social Security Administration spoke on the possibilities of social security reform.
The panel also featured Adam Sheingate, a professor from the Hopkins political science department and Bruce W. Hamilton, a professor from the economics department.
"In policy jargon, social security is known as the pay-to-go system. When you're working, all the money you pay as taxes come in from the front door and go out of the back door to the beneficiaries. There's very little surplus," said Korbey.
Korbey explained that such a system would work well when there are a lot of workers paying for social security. However, ultimately there will be a need to reform the system in order to keep the level of contribution to the system stable.
Hamilton further described the situation by using a boxes analogy to compare the amount of taxes received and the benefits given out.
"If two boxes are of the same size, there is no problem," Hamilton said.
"Right now, the tax box is a little bit bigger than the benefit box, but it's not going to last. Therein lies the fundamental problem, and the question is what possible fixes there are," Hamilton added.
The speaker addressed two major directions for solving the problem, includeding a tax raise and benefit cuts.
Hamilton pointed out that under these two possible fixes, the government could also raise the retirement age. This means that more people would be paying for social security.
"The least difficult thing to do is to raise the payroll tax. That's what we've been doing," said Sheingate.
Sheingate addressed the political difficulties of the social security system.
He pointed out that a problem with this kind of system is that the costs are very concentrated but the benefits are widely diffused.
The event was organized by the College Republicans in an effort to raise the students' awareness on the issue of social security. Around 30 students attended the panel discussion.
"I just felt that social security is a very important issue, especially for the younger generation," said Marc Goldstein, former director of operations of the Hopkins College Republicans.
He added, "There are strong opinions out there talking all about social security that need to be addressed."
The College Republicans hoped to create a platform for discussion about the debate over security reform.
"I feel like those who came were very interested," said Goldwein.
"They asked very good questions but most of the campus hasn't showed much interest in the issue. We need to do more to bring people's attention and it's a hard thing to do. I don't really have an easy answer for that," he added.
College Republicans have also planned an upcoming panel discussion on medical malpractice liability.