Module 2 Current Events Discussion

Current News Event example:

Subject Line: Social Security, page 457

The Social Security Act was first established on August 14, 1935 by President Franklin Roosevelt. It was intended to protect the elderly from poverty by providing the minimum level of sustenance. Workers pay into social security when they were working and when they retire, they can collect a monthly check based on their age of retirement and how much they paid in. This term is important to understand because it is constantly discussed and debated by members of our government. We are told that Social Security will not be around when today’s younger people retire unless drastic changes are made to the program. If changes aren’t made, the program will be in danger of failing.

https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/social-security/articles/2018-02-12/the-social- security-retirement-age-increases-in-2018

The article I read talks about how the baby boomer generation is starting to turn the retirement age and getting ready to collect social security benefits. The article talks about how this has resulted in Congress to act to protect Social Security and increase the age in which people can can retire. The article goes on to state that those that choose to retire and start collecting at age 62 instead of 66 will find that their benefit payments will be 25% smaller. This reduction is an incentive to encourage people to wait to collect their full benefits a few years later.