Our policy proposal encompasses two critical cornerstones of retirement (along with many little building blocks) planning in the United States: 401k plans and Social Security. Below are listed some of the main political challenges we might encounter and potential rebuttals:
The resistance of “Big Business” to mandates: Mandating 401k plans for businesses with a certain number of employees could face pushback from small business owners who might argue that such requirements impose undue financial burdens. To address this, emphasize the benefits of offering retirement plans, such as attracting and retaining talent, improving employee satisfaction and productivity, and potentially qualifying for tax benefits.
Imposition of 401k Fee’s: Critics may point out that 401k plans often come with fees that eat into retirement savings over the long term. Our plan to mitigate this challenge is to propose regulations or incentives to heavily encourage employers to choose low-cost investment options and provide transparent fee structures for every participant. Highlight the long-term savings potential of 401k plans despite fees, especially when compared to other retirement savings options (think high yield savings accounts for example).
Increased Education and Participation: Encouraging employees to maximize their 401k contributions requires effective education and outreach efforts, as well as sound financial group in their own lives. This may face heavy resistance from employers who see it as an additional administrative burden (as the government did for years and left the default Fund G for contributions) or employees who are hesitant to commit a portion of their paycheck to retirement savings. Offer incentives for employers to provide financial education programs and emphasize the long-term benefits of saving early and consistently for retirement.
^This is the subject of my paper and below are the instructions.
Final Policy Paper
POLS 4999
Objective
Your goal for this project is to produce a 10 page (excluding bibliography, cover page, & abstract) policy paper that advocates for a reform to the existing US retirement system. The paper should demonstrate:
Your research skills (including skills at finding, interpreting, and citing scholarly research)
Your writings skills (including clear exposition, but also organization, and efficiency)
Your critical thinking skills (an ability to: analyze problems, describe alternative solutions to the problem, and provide reasons for selecting one among a range of alternatives)
Finally, there are a couple of skills that the Political Science program would like you to demonstrate in this paper. We would like you to include at least one table summarizing some numerical data and one graph that you created yourself.
Assessment
The grading for this assignment will be split into 3 parts:
Research component (60%)
How thorough was your research?
How many sources did you use?
How good were they? (Academic books/articles or things you found on the Internet)
How well do you articulate both the problem and the various possible solutions to that problem?
Did you present an original graph?
Did you create an original table summarizing relevant data?
Research Question (20%)
Did you make good inferences from your research in order to make a policy proposal?
Does your paper plausibly answer the problem identified in the research portion of the paper?
Communication/ Formatting (20%)
Is your paper clear?
Is it easy to read?
Is the spelling and grammar at the level of college graduate?
Is the paper well-organized (Introduction, Conclusion, Thematic Paragraphs, Clear Sequencing of Ideas)?
Are the citations precise and accurate?
Are you within the word limit?
Is your writing concise or do you repeat yourself a lot?
Did you ignore any of the submission or formatting instructions?
Formatting & Submission Instructions
Your research paper will be between 10 and 20 pages in length (double spaced, Times New Roman 12pt Font) not inclusive of the bibliography & cover page (a cover page is optional)
The paper will contain precise in-text citations (or footnotes) referring to page numbers in book & articles.
The choice of citation format is up to you. APA, Chicago Style, and AMA are acceptable.
Your research paper will not have your name on it anywhere for the purposes of blind review.
Your research paper should be submitted to the appropriate D2L dropbox in a single document (do not submit several files, e.g. one with a cover page, one with the bibliography, one with the main text…)
File types accepted include, .doc, .docx, and, .pdf.
The paper will be run through Turnitin.com to check for plagiarism. Plagiarized papers will automatically fail with a 0, but citation mistakes (such as imprecision or wrong page numbers) will not count as plagiarism.
Uncited use of AI Chatbots like ChatGPT is also grounds for failing with a 0.
Late papers are accepted for up to 3 days after the due date with a 5 point per late day penalty (up to 15 points). Extensions may be granted on a case by case basis, but poor time management is not a valid excuse.
