And those projections are based on a cautious economic forecast. Maintaining current levels of growth would sustain Social Security through the next century without any changes in the program. Women must be particularly wary of the remedies proposed to fix Social Security. After a lifetime of work, women often find ourselves in dire economic straits during what was supposed to be our golden years. Women are a majority of all Social Security recipients, and roughly three out of four of the recipients over 85 are women.
Older women are twice as likely as men to live in poverty.
And senior women are twice as likely to depend on Social Security as their sole support. Privatizers want Generation X to join their attacks against Social Security, but young people should beware. Seniors aren't the only ones who benefit from Social Security. Three million children and their sole caretaker parents depend on Social Security's death and disability benefits to survive. Under the cover of a fantasy funding crisis and in the name of reducing government, conservatives want to revise or even eliminate Social Security in ways that will essentially eliminate the safety net.