Social Security is under attack. Donald Trump may try to pretend otherwise, but the wrecking-ball actions of Elon Musk’s DOGE squad – rapid-fire staffing cuts, haphazard changes to complex programs and IT systems, the distribution of sensitive personal data to randos – are blocking retirees and disabled people from vital income and destabilizing the entire Social Security Administration (SSA).
The playbook seems clear: Take one of the most popular and successful government programs we have, and break it. Claim it’s so dysfunctional that it has to be dismantled – perhaps even privatized, as Republicans have tried to do before. And use a flood of lies and misinformation to convince younger Americans to go along with their scheme. In essence, they’ll set our house on fire, then stand there with fistfuls of spent matches, telling us that it was doomed anyway and “would you like to invest in a nice condo near Mar-a-Lago instead?”
Sadly, it could work. If they convince enough of us that Social Security is already a hopeless cause, then we won’t speak up to save it. After all, the very idea of retirement may feel distant or even impossible for millennials, much less Gen Z. We are the unlucky inheritors not only of an economy that has lurched from one recession to the next, but a political system that too often has responded by cutting public support systems. Every time the foundations of a decent life – an affordable house, a degree, a stable job – begin to come into focus, another crisis knocks them out of reach again. Recession. Pandemic. Inflation.
I’ve been on that rollercoaster ride. Before landing at the National Partnership, I had 20+ jobs across the first 20 years I was in the labor force. Not a single one even offered a retirement plan, not to mention a paycheck big enough to leave a spare dollar after rent, bills and student loans.
That’s not unusual. As of 2023, more than one-third of people ages 30-44 and more than half of 18- to 29-year-olds don’t even have a tax-advantaged retirement account, like a 401(k).
Gen X, closer to retirement, isn’t much better off: More than one in four have no account. As for those lucky enough to have a private retirement account at all, half of Xers have a balance of $10,000 or less.
To further complicate things, we’ve all seen the wild swings the stock market can take. Historically, traditional investments like index funds pay off over the long term – if you’re able to make them and especially if you can start early. But that’s a lot of ifs, and any downturn at the wrong time can leave retirees in a tough spot.
That’s where Social Security comes in: a trio of time-tested programs that provide a baseline of stability for nearly all Americans.
Most retirees get the majority of their income from Social Security’s retirement benefits. Women are particularly reliant on Social Security in retirement because they tend to have lower personal savings, the result of persistent wage gaps and more caregiving time out of the workforce. Racial wage gaps mean workers of color also lean heavily on Social Security.
I’d love to think these massive structural inequities will have been solved by the time I’m retirement age, but I’m not holding my breath. I will need those Social Security benefits.
Beyond retirement, about one in five people currently benefiting from Social Security programs are surviving spouses and minor children, or disabled and unable to work. For the latter, income supports from Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income – while even more modest than retirement benefits – are essential for disabled people. If that group doesn’t include you, it absolutely includes some of your family, friends or neighbors.
So when the world’s richest man and the billionaire-run Trump administration look at a 90-year-old program – one that lifts millions of people out of poverty and provides a basic level of economic independence to older women and disabled people – and call it a Ponzi scheme, I’m not buying it. The only scam operating here is the Trump-Musk-DOGE effort to sell out our future. Don’t let them get away with it.
This piece originally appeared on Ms. Magazine.
