Exercise 4. Complete the articles with prepositions. Discuss them with your fellow-students

1.

Retiring ___ financial dignity is ___ jeopardy. That is the direct result ___ Social Security's ever-expanding

role ___ the economics ___ both retirees and workers. Compassionate in intent, but flawed ___ design,

Social Security will prevent many ___ enjoying financial security ___ their later years.

Unlike personal savings, pensions, and independent retirement accounts, all of which are stores ___ wealth,

Social Security is a misguided political construct, wherein one's retirement benefits are dependent ___ the

willingness ___ future workers to be taxed.

Benefits paid ___ present recipients are low. Benefits to be paid ___ future recipients will be even lower.

Worse, the legal requirement to pay Social Security taxes prevents workers ___ investing the money lost to

those taxes ___ higher earning assets.

Beyond that, the unsound financial foundation ___ the system virtually ensures that the promised benefits,

low as they are, will be reduced even further. ___ the past, when Social Security's financial precariousness

was addressed, the legislative response was to increase taxes and reduce benefits. Such responses not

only failed to solve the problem, they exacerbated it.

There is a better solution. Allow people the freedom to invest their Federal Insurance Contributions Act

(FICA) taxes ___ financial assets such as stocks and bonds. History shows that the financial return ___

those instruments meets retirement needs ___ a fraction ___ Social Security's cost.

___ example, assuming historical rates ___ return, if individuals born ___ 1970 were allowed to invest ___

stocks the amount they currently pay ___ Social Security taxes, those individuals could receive nearly six

times the benefits that they are scheduled to receive ___ Social Security, as much as $11,729 per month.

Even a low-wage earner would receive nearly three times the return on Social Security.

The idea ___ privatizing a public pension system is neither new nor untried. Where it has been properly

implemented, it has been remarkably successful. ___ governments, privatization is the only viable answer to

Social Security's inherent problems; ___ individuals, it is a profitable one.

2.

Social Security was born of the Great Depression. It was a political response ___ a severe economic trauma.

___ the first years ___ the 1930s real gross national product contracted ___ more than 25 percent.

Unemployment rose ___ almost 22 percent. The stock market virtually imploded, dropping ___ 70 percent

___ 1929 ___ 1934. Americans were financially insecure and frightened.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, witnessing the country ___ despair, addressed Congress ___ June 8, 1934.

He promised legislation that he said would restore security. Some of his comments are telling.

Among our objectives I place the security ___ the men, women, and children ___ the nation first.

Next winter we may well undertake the great task ___ furthering the security ___ the citizen and his family

through social insurance.

Hence I am looking ___ a sound means which I can recommend to provide at once security against several

___ the great disturbing factors in life.

The Great Depression set the stage and President Roosevelt deftly took his cue. Just one year later, ___

August 14, 1935, the Social Security Act was passed.

___ its early, compassionate beginnings Social Security developed ___ a massive yet highly regarded

program. Even though it is expensive - 76 percent of today's wage earners pay more Social Security taxes

than federal income taxes - the system's supporters are numerous, heterogeneous, vocal, and politically

powerful. By and large, they do not want politicians to meddle ___ the system. However, Social Security is

dangerously flawed and unsustainable in its current form.