In the near-term, however, the number of American households headed by individuals aged 65 to 74 is expected to stabilize a 12.5 million in 1995. Most of these householders are expected to live in single-family dwellings. In the mid-1990s, 69 percent of this age group live in single-family homes; by 2000, the proportion is expected to rise to 73 percent.

Increasing numbers of persons aged 65 years old and older will put added pressures on the social security system. Just prior to and during the first term of the Reagan Administration, the federal government tumbled to the fact that the baby boom generation would one day become eligible for social security retirement benefits. When a closer look was taken, it was thought that the retirement trust funds likely would not be able to remain solvent when the baby boomers retired unless changes were made to the system. As a consequence, a new contribution structure was developed that the Reagan Administration and the Congress assured the American public would provide for the fiscal integrity of the retirement trust funds to a point at least mid-way through the twenty-first c

Under the system described above, a strong justification may be made for a contention that payments into the social security system are just another federal tax, as opposed to being contributions to a retirement plan. This view of social security is the narrow contextual perception of social security contributions. The broader view of social security is something quite different from this narrow view. Social security was created in 1935 as a retirement plan for American workers to be administered by the federal government. Hence, the monies paid into the social security system are to be placed into trust for the future benefit of the worker contributors to the system. The federal government, in the form of the Social Security Commission, is the trustee charged with managing the trust funds in such a way that the principal is protected while earning interest on safe investments. Under this original concept, the Social Security Commission, as trustee could exercise discretion in investing the trust funds to the greatest benefit of the contributors. Even under the revised investment requirements, however, contributions to the social security system retain the legal status of trust funds. What is now absent from the perspective of the worker contributors to the system is an assurance of maximum investment integrity.

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