College students aren't too young to worry about Social Security, said Carrie L. Lukas, the director of the conservative Independent Women's Forum, at an event held by the College Republicans Wednesday.
"Time spent on the Social Security debate now is time well spent," she said, explaining that college-aged students are most affected by problems in the current Social Security system.
Her speech in the Battelle-Tompkins atrium was part of the College Republicans' "Save Social Security Day," which also included afternoon tabling and the unveiling of "Matty the Mattress," their new Social Security mascot that aims to show the dangers of the current program.
"A mattress is a better place to store one's money," Lukas said.
Lukas called the current system a deceptive scheme and listed her problems with Social Security, starting with the financial crisis facing the system. The ratio of workers to retirees has changed from 16-1 to 3-1 between 1960 and today, she said, warning that by about 2050, the ratio will be 2-1.
"Social security will not provide a good rate of return for the emerging workforce," Lukas said. "A person would get, at best, a 1-percent rate of return on their current payments into the Social Security system."
Currently, Social Security actually encourages married women to stay home and raise families.
"If these women are divorced before 10 years, they have no retirement fund and must start from scratch late in their lives," Lukas said.
Lukas also warned the audience about the dangers of doing nothing and criticized the media for slow coverage of the issue. She said that by doing nothing now, the country will see a Social Security deficit by 2017, which would force the system to dip into income tax revenue to cover the deficit.
Lukas did not see any worth in the proposed fixes to the coming deficit, such as increasing the income tax, cutting spending in other programs or borrowing more money. Eventually, Social Security would be as large as the Department of Defense budget, she said.
After the speech, College Republican President Mike Inganamort lamented the wide uninterest in Social Security.
"Many people don't care at their own peril. ... It's important people understand reform is necessary and they need to learn their options," Inganamort said.
Derek Heiss, a freshman in SIS, said he was "very afraid" of the Social Security crisis. "I view personal accounts as the best solution," Heiss said.
According to Inganamort, stuffing cash in a mattress would get attention, but he personally wouldn't do it because intuitive young people realize that they should put their money in stocks, bonds and other safe, profitable investment opportunities.
Lukas was candid after the speech in stating that she was "optimistic, but wouldn't put odds" on any kind of agreement. She called Social Security reform a "huge issue" and went on to blame "the media and other roadblocks" for people not being aware of the importance.
"This directly affects our standards of living in the future," she said.
Evan Bleiweiss, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, did not agree with the plan.
"We need to reform the system eventually, because people live longer, but I think what [President] Bush wants to do is a load of crap," Bleiweiss said. "Privatization is creepy. We don't need more corporate welfare."
Jon Dawood, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, also criticized Bush's plan.
"I think it will counter the original purpose," Dawood said. "It's not a good deal to let it become another aspect of the capitalist market system we have going"
