Many young Americans today do not realize how far our society has strayed from our Founding Father’s fundamental principles of individual liberty.

We have become so accustomed to following the rules imposed on us by the government that we often failed to question failing public policies and advocate for our freedom to choose our own future. The most troubling issue for today’s young Americans is the Social Security financial crisis.

An outdated system established in the 1930s, amidst America’s Great Depressions, now remains unfunded and has become analogous to illegal pyramid schemes.

As Karl Borden, a professor of financial economics at the University of Nebraska, described in 1995, "the system, is not unlike that created by a Ponzi scheme [also known as a pyramid scheme and illegal in all 50 states] where early investors are paid off with cash taken from later investors.

The system creates no real growth, but accounting data can create the illusion of wealth as long as the base investors keeps growing. The system collapses when the demands of increasing numbers of expectant recipients confront the limited resources of decreasing numbers of new participants."

Social Security is one of the government’s best accounting illusions, while there seems to be a positive balance in the fund, the receipt of tax dollars are lent to other government agencies to finance current government projects. A look at these facts should make all young Americans concerned:

• The maximum original Social Security tax was just $60. Today it is $11,000.
• Social Security taxes have been raised more than 40 times since the program began.
• The Social Security payroll tax rate has grown from just 2 percent in 1949 to 12.4 percent today.
• A medium income worker born after 1965 can expect a rate-of-return of less than 2% on his or her Social Security taxes.
• In 2005, the Social Security Board of Trustees reported that in 1945, there were about 50 workers paying Social Security taxes for every retired person receiving benefits, and today, there are 3.3 workers. By 2050, when most of today’s college students are looking towards retirement, there will be only 2 workers paying Social Security taxes for every retired person receiving benefits.

In 1960, the Supreme Court had ruled in Flemming v. Nestor that entitlements to social security are not a contractual right. Therefore, although we contribute a portion of each our earned income to Social Security, there is absolutely no legal guarantee that we will ever see any of that money in the future.

Rather than continuing to contribute to a bankrupt system that we know cannot repay us in the future, and is not legally bound to do so, we must protect our future by redirecting the Social Security system into personal retirement accounts that we have personal control over.

Although Social Security is a failing system that urgently needs dismantling, some big government lovers still believe that the traditional system is safer than privatizing and turning it over to individual accountability.

They fear that by privatizing social security, the "security" is being jeopardized, and especially the security of women, minorities, and the poor, however, they fail to understand or merely trying to overlook that the current Social Security trust fund is made up of government IOU’s to the government.

It is true that the private market is unpredictable, but the current near bankrupt government Social Security trust fund also depends on the future of an unpredictable private market, more specifically, the income of individual taxpayers.

The main difference is that people who own private securities are holding onto a real asset that currently exists and not a promise of something that may or may not come into existence.

It is true that women, minorities and the poor depend on the income of social security more, which is why they would benefit more from privatizing social security. Women, minorities, the poor, and all Americans deserve to have individual choice and control of their future, rather than being forced to follow the government’s empty promise.

Young America must take control of the security of our future. It is time to restore our freedom to choose our own destiny.

Constance Liu graduated from Kalani High School in 2001 and immediately moved out to Los Angeles to explore the world outside of Hawaii. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California where she majored in International Relations and Communication. She currently is in her freshman year of law school at USC and hopes to move back to Hawaii one day to practice law.

A Fresh Perspective is a project of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. Submit proposed articles to mailto:grassroot@hawaii.rr.com