One of my professors recently showed me a copy of The New York Times that prominently featured a picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt juxtaposed next to a picture of George W. Bush. Two great presidents, indeed. My professor did this to imply that Bush is trampling over the legacy of Roosevelt and his New Deal programs, more explicitly Social Security.
He, like many beneficiaries and grandchildren of the New Deal, is nostalgic for the days when the government provided for the citizenry in a compassionate manner.
One reader of The Clarion-Ledger proclaimed, “Franklin D. Roosevelt thought his liberal New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps gave jobs, hope and self-esteem to thousands of Americans.”
That reader is right. Unlike many of my conservative intellectual heroes, I believe that Roosevelt was a great president whose quasi-socialist programs saved America.
He was a great president for his time. Great presidents rise to the occasion and certain ideologies work best at certain times. Roosevelt’s policies helped uplift our nation in a time of misery and despair.
The fact many New Deal nostalgics won’t accept is that Roosevelt is dead and the Great Depression is over. Our nation is in a period of prosperity and the policies of the New Deal are neither practical nor warranted in this day and time.
Many Democrats have blown a fuse at the notion of allowing taxpayers to use two to three percent of their exorbitant Social Security taxes for voluntary investments. Many have roundly declared this proposal to be the death knell of Roosevelt’s great Social Security program.
A visionary once predicted a transition for Social Security in the years to come, saying: “In the important field of security for our old people, it seems necessary to adopt three principles: First, noncontributing old-age pensions for those who are now too old to build up their own insurance. It is, of course, clear that for perhaps 30 years to come funds will have to be provided by the States and the Federal Government to meet these pensions. Second, compulsory contributory annuities that in time will establish a self-supporting system for those now young and for future generations. Third, voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age. It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans.”
Most who read the above statement would say this it is nothing more than Republican hubris advocated by someone like William Cabot Lodge. The notion of annuities or market investments is a conservative’s pipe dream.
Who advocated “voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age?” That person was none other than Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Although Roosevelt didn’t support complete privatization, he obviously believed in the power of the markets to keep Social Security afloat.
It’s way past the 30 years he predicted but we still don’t have the annuity plans he spoke of. It’s time we gave Americans more flexibility with the money they pay. This is especially important to workers aged 55 and older who don’t need the benevolence of the government to manage their affairs.
The downside of this is the high transitional cost of changing the system. However, a friend reminded me that Bush is probably the only politician willing to deal with this third rail issue.
The time to change Social Security is now because politicians in the future might only be willing to address “feel good” issues. The reform will eventually pay for itself.
Alas, the biggest roadblock is the American Association of Retired People. Well, I, on behalf of the fictional American Association of Young People, demand that Social Security be addressed now while someone has the courage to fix it.
Edward Sanders is a sophomore political science major. He can be reached at [email protected].