The subject of this extra credit assignment is how social security benefits may change. The White House may tie increases to inflation, not wages, which could lower payouts. The White House is seriously considering changing the way benefits is calculated as part of its attempt to reform Social Security. This is a shift that could mean decrease benefits for future retirees. Although the president has not made an ultimate conclusion to embrace the approach, and the first White House priority is an immense public relations campaign this month to elevate awareness of the system's problems. The reform idea would be to utilize inflation rates instead of workers' wages to calculate Social Security benefits, as reported Tuesday in the Washington Post. The approach, "price indexing" was advocated in 2001 by the president's Social Security Commission. The president promised that those at or approaching retirement would not witness their benefits cut. Altering the way benefits are calculated could cut benefits considerably for future Social Security recipients.

This has a huge impact on future Social Security recipients, including myself. If president Bush makes a final decision on embracing the idea to calculate Social Security benefits by using inflation rates instead of workers' wages. I think that this isn't fair to future retirees and that there is a serious problem in the Social Security system that needs to be fixed or a new system should just be made.