MEET JO JENSEN:
Editor's Note: A great article on Jo Jensen and Students for Saving Social Security appears on the front page of the 1/8/08 Wall Street Journal.
It's a wonder Jo Jensen ever graduated from college. As busy as she is, one has to wonder how she ever found the time.
A 2007 graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Jensen is the Executive Director of Students for Saving Social Security (S4). In 2006, she gave up being president of her junior class to manage S4's day to day activities in Washington, DC, but after a stint as S4's Chief of Staff, she returned to school to finish her senior year. Now, with her degree in politics and economics in hand, she supervises S4's staffers in DC, scores of volunteers nationwide, and more than 230 campus chapters around the country.
For Our Grandchildren's National Director, James Hamilton, recently chatted with Jo and asked a few questions.
Interview
Hamilton: What's a nice student like you doing in a place like Washington, DC?
Jo Jensen: I am thrilled to be a part of a high-energy atmosphere that draws engaged students from across the country and provides opportunities for leadership and debate. There are lots of young people in DC trying to make progress on the issues that are important to our generation, and I am happy to help represent the voice of today's students on the issue of Social Security.
Because many students come to Washington, DC, for a summer and then return to school in the fall, Students for Saving Social Security has a unique opportunity to engage new activists and spread our message to college students in all 50 states.
Hamilton: The group is really making an impact. Tell me more about S4.
Jo Jensen: S4 is dedicated to choice and ownership within the Social Security program. We found out during the debate in 2005 that there are two great opportunities for educating and mobilizing voters. The first is saving senior citizens from the scare tactics of some retirement associations, and helping explain that Social Security benefits for our parents and grandparents would be protected under a proposal to keep the system afloat. For Our Grandchildren and others have made significant inroads in this department.
The second opportunity involves young people, and this is where we have since focused. A full two-thirds of our generation supported personal accounts in a 2005 survey by Pew Research, yet we did not have sufficient representation in the debate. S4 has grown to 8,000 members as a result of the fact that young people understand that some politicians want to make Social Security an even worse deal for us.
It is important for us to recognize that when politicians talk about raising taxes, they are talking about raising our taxes. And when they talk about benefits not being there in the future, they are talking about our benefits not being there.
Hamilton: You consider this a personal issue? What do your family and friends think about your activism?
Jo Jensen: Of course this is a personal issue. All of us pay into Social Security, and this issue should be personal for all of us. Social Security has become the largest government program in the world, and it is time for each of us to consider why it is we are paying into a broken system. If we contribute to Social Security in order to prevent poverty among senior citizens, there are certainly better methods. If we contribute in order to save for our own retirement, we are fools not to take advantage of market-based equity. Fortunately, I have great friends and a very supportive family who really applauds my passion and has always encouraged and challenged me.
When I was five years old, my grandfather gave me a piggy bank for my birthday. He taught me about the value of money, about the value of saving for the future. It was a great present, and I used the piggy bank throughout grade school and high school to save all of my money from babysitting and other jobs. And one day recently it occurred to me: What if the piggy bank had been broken? What if there had been a hole in the bottom? I know my grandpa would have been furious. He would have driven right back to the store and demanded a new one.
My family and friends identify with this need to pass along the right values to future generations. They understand that Social Security is a broken system, and they are happy that someone is demanding positive change.
Hamilton: Why the sense of urgency?
Jo Jensen: The next president will take office in 2009 and could leave the White House in 2017, the same year that Social Security hits a deficit. S4 is talking to presidential candidates in order to give them an opportunity to explain the specifics of how we ought to reform Social Security. Even though our retirement is a long way off, we need to understand that reform will take place in the next 10 years. Reform must take place in the next 10 years, or else the program will not have enough money to cover benefits in 2017.
The options in this debate are clear and discrete. The options are:
1) Reform with personal accounts;
2) Raise taxes only;
3) Cut benefits only;
4) A combination of 2 and 3;
5) Do nothing.
We need to put pressure on the candidates to explain in no uncertain terms which of these options they support.
Hamilton: You and other S4 activists are traveling and meeting lots of people around the country. What’s the most interesting encounter you've had so far?
Jo Jensen: I am always impressed when I meet people who are as excited about this issue as I am. I think the most interesting encounter I have had is every time I put on the ostrich costume that S4 has to tell candidates to get their heads out of the sand and fix Social Security. Everyone just loves the costume because it looks like I am actually riding the ostrich-- we are very fortunate to have it because the ostrich is a wonderfully creative way to get people's attention.
Hamilton: What are you hearing from people/other students out in the heartland?
Jo Jensen: There is no doubt that this is a national issue affecting everyone who works or intends to work. S4 has a good base for activism in every state, and the Midwest has been a particularly solid area of support.
National Coordinator James D'Angelo, a student at Northwestern University, published a lengthy piece in the Northwestern Chronicle titled Retirement Policies Relevant, Even for Students. Jeff Fraser, a national coordinator at Indiana University, had a long letter to the editor published in the Indianapolis Star. In Fraser's letter, titled Congress must act to protect future of Social Security, he writes: 'We must no longer be fooled about the alternatives to personal accounts. Disagreement can be healthy, and there is room in this debate for dissonant voices. But we must not allow people to yell about what they are against before we ask that they clearly explain what they are for.'
This is the spirit with which we move toward the 2008 presidential election. Together with groups like For Our Grandchildren, we will ensure that this debate focuses on the people most affected by future reform.
Part of the educational process is allowing each candidate the opportunity to speak clearly on this issue, and you can be sure that we'll be out on the campaign trail with the S4 Ostrich!
Learn more about the Students for Saving Social Security organization by reading James Hamilton's article featuring them.
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