Caring for our elders is the collective responsibility of society, not an individual responsibility. <\/i><\/p>\n
While I try to stay informed, I do what I can to stick to the news and avoid political commentary \u2013 it just gets my blood pressure up. But every now and then something slips through my filters and raises said blood pressure to the point where I have to say something. This is one of those times.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had it with Rick Perry and Rush Limbaugh all the other right wing talking heads calling Social Security a \u201cPonzi scheme.\u201d This is not a debate tactic. It is not a policy proposal. It is not political theory. It is a lie \u2013 a deliberate falsehood told with the intent to deceive and manipulate. <\/p>\n
The intent is to associate Social Security \u2013 the most effective and, dare I say it, the most loved government program in the history of this country \u2013 with a white collar criminal who enriched himself by deceiving his clients. Nobody knows who Ponzi was, but everyone knows his disciple Bernie Madoff, who is justly rotting in jail. <\/p>\n
Social Security has always been the \u201cthird rail\u201d of politics \u2013 touch it and die. That\u2019s a problem for politicians who are philosophically opposed to it. The human brain doesn\u2019t work on logic, it works by association. Say \u201cSocial Security\u201d and \u201cPonzi scheme\u201d in the same sentence enough times and people will start to associate the two. That can finally make it possible for politicians to abandon the collective care of our elders without losing their elected offices. <\/p>\n
Caring for our elders is the collective responsibility of society, not an individual responsibility. <\/i><\/p>\n
The facts aren\u2019t in question. Social Security isn\u2019t an investment scheme, legal or otherwise. It\u2019s a public pension plan. It operates on the principle of collective responsibility \u2013 each generation pays for the retirement of today\u2019s elders and its retirement will be paid for by tomorrow\u2019s adults. <\/p>\n
There are some aspects of the plan that invite confusion, especially by those who want to be confused. Those who pay more Social Security taxes while working will draw more benefits once retired, up to a point. That ceiling is used to justify a cap on Social Security taxes \u2013 no taxes are collected on income over $106,800 per year. And due to the increased payouts expected when the baby boomer generation retires, taxes were raised and supposedly placed in a \u201ctrust fund\u201d to be drawn down in later years. But the facts remain \u2013 Social Security is a public pension program, not an investment plan.<\/p>\n
Caring for our elders is the collective responsibility of society, not an individual responsibility. <\/i><\/p>\n
The idea of retirement is very new. In tribal societies, elders simply worked less as their capacities declined. Of course, in tribal societies, not a lot of people lived to be very old. Throughout most of civilization, families have cared for their parents and grandparents \u2013 thus the motivation for large families, to insure that someone could take care of you in your old age. But in almost no situations were people expected to take care of themselves up the the point of death. <\/p>\n
Where there were no adult children to care for their elders, or when those adult children didn\u2019t have the resources, it went badly for the elders. Even if we wanted to return to a \u201cyour children are your retirement plan\u201d arrangement, modern Western society has destroyed the extended family. If there are no jobs where you live, you\u2019re expected to move to where the jobs are. I\u2019ve done that three times, moving from Tennessee to Indiana to Georgia to Texas. It\u2019s hard to take care of your parents and grandparents when they\u2019re half a country away. <\/p>\n
Caring for our elders is the collective responsibility of society, not an individual responsibility. <\/i><\/p>\n
And so we\u2019ve developed other arrangements for caring for our elders. I remember the HR presentation on retirement when I started my professional career in 1984. It said \u201cfinancing retirement is a three-legged stool: employer pensions, Social Security, and personal savings.\u201d Employer pensions are all but gone \u2013 small businesses never had them and corporations say they can\u2019t afford them. This puts even more pressure on personal savings. Over the last 4-\u00bd years the balance in my retirement account has gone up 3% (in total, not per year), even though I\u2019m saving 12% of my pay and my employer is adding another 3%. My rate of return is negative. If I was nearing retirement I\u2019d be seriously worried \u2013 as it is I\u2019m just hoping the economy improves enough for it to start growing again before I get too much older.<\/p>\n
At least I make enough that I can save \u2013 people in low-wage jobs need all they make and then some just to get by. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019re very frugal or very lucky \u2013 or if you\u2019re rich to start with \u2013 you can finance your own retirement. The majority of us can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Caring for our elders is the collective responsibility of society, not an individual responsibility. <\/i><\/p>\n
The opponents of Social Security feed people\u2019s evolutionary selfishness and suspicion of others. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should I have to pay for someone\u2019s retirement when they weren\u2019t responsible like I am?\u201d This is the part of the lone wolf myth Perry et al are trying to popularize. Maybe they were irresponsible or maybe they had bad luck or maybe they never made enough to be able to save. As the current economy has shown, you can do all the right things and still end up screwed. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should I have to pay for someone\u2019s retirement when they don\u2019t need Social Security?\u201d This is the other side of the lone wolf myth. The fact is that very few people \u201cdon\u2019t need\u201d Social Security. Keeping them in the system reinforces the idea of collective responsibility and collective benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could do better if I took the Social Security taxes and invested them on my own.\u201d Maybe you could and maybe you couldn\u2019t \u2013 see my own example above. More importantly, would you? <\/p>\n
You pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars each year for car insurance \u2013 odds are you rarely collect on that. Is car insurance a scam? No, it\u2019s the principle of shared risk \u2013 you pay a little now to eliminate the risk of having to pay a lot later.<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial Security is unsustainable \u2013 we have to end it.\u201d This is simply not true. Even if we did nothing, future benefits would still be roughly 75% of what\u2019s been promised. That\u2019s not good, but it\u2019s hardly reason to blow up Social Security. With small tax increases and a reasonable increase in the retirement age, Social Security can be sustainable indefinitely.<\/p>\n
This doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t structural problems or that there are no instances of gaming the system or that Social Security can never be changed. But the bottom line is that for all its shortcomings, Social Security is the #1 reason why most elderly people in this country aren\u2019t living in poverty.<\/p>\n
Caring for our elders is the collective responsibility of society, not an individual responsibility. <\/i><\/p>\n
We need to rethink retirement. <\/p>\n
In a society where people live longer, it\u2019s reasonable to expect people to also work longer. But is it reasonable to have the same retirement age for construction workers and office workers? Is it reasonable to expect people to carry a full workload right up until they retire and then shift to idleness? <\/p>\n
If there were more jobs suitable for older (and by \u201colder\u201d I mean 70, not 50) workers \u2013 part time, not physically demanding \u2013 then we\u2019d need to pay fewer retirement benefits. We\u2019d also stop throwing away valuable economic and societal resources \u2013 an extravagance we won\u2019t be able to afford once the impact of lower birth rates hits. <\/p>\n
In the end, though, this is not an economic or a political issue. It\u2019s a moral issue. It\u2019s a religious issue. We cannot be a good, moral society if we don\u2019t take care of our elders. If any politician (or anyone else) has a better idea on how to accomplish this goal \u2013 for everyone, not just those who work for the right companies and pick the right mutual funds \u2013 then I welcome it. <\/p>\n
But stop attempting to associate our current social contract with a criminal scam. <\/p>\n
Caring for our elders is the collective responsibility of society, not an individual responsibility.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caring for our elders is the collective responsibility of society, not an individual responsibility. While I try to stay informed, I do what I can to stick to the news and avoid political commentary \u2013 it just gets my blood pressure up. But every now and then something slips through my filters and raises said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n