For Immediate Release:August 14, 2000

PERSONALIZING SOCIAL SECURITY “WAVE OF THE FUTURE”

Statement by 60 Plus President Jim Martin
Washington, D.C. — At a fourth forum on Saving Social Security sponsored by the 60 Plus Association, a nonpartisan senior citizens advocacy group with 500,000 members, Association President Jim Martin declared partial privatization of the retirement system “the wave of the future”, as Social Security turned 65 years old.Martin said that the privatized system trail blazed in 1981 by Chile, has been adopted by more than two-dozen countries, “even socialist Sweden and Communist China.

Martin said that after his group researched the issue, 60 Plus polled its members and discovered that while Social Security was solvent for current retirees, it was soon going broke due to lower birth rates and seniors living longer, placing further strains on the pay-as-you-go system.

Martin said that the 2% tax on $3,000 income provided sufficient funds in the beginning, 65 years ago, yet 12.4% on $76,200 is not enough to sustain it due to fewer workers paying in per retiree, the result of lower birth rates and most of all because we seniors are living much longer than the actuarial tables indicated (65) when the system was enacted.”Martin noted that while it’s “commonly known that the fastest growing segment of the population is age 85, the second fastest is those 100 and above.”

Martin’s group published a study, “Personalizing Social Security: Unplugging the Third Rail” and is the first senior group to call for partial privatization of the system to save it for future retirees.

-30-