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For 75 years Social Security has been providing a very important function. It is a safety net keeping our elderly out of poverty. It works and is not in immediate danger. It can be fixed with some tweaks such as raising the income cap on collecting Social Security.
Do not raise retirement age.
The President's deficit commission looked into possible adjustments to Social Security...although it is self funded and does not contribute to the deficit in the first place. Their suggestion was to increase the retirement age to 69. Making citizens work longer, paying more into the system then give them less in return when they retire.
I was curious.
On the US Census web site are statistics on expected life span of America's citizens. Contrary to what some believe we do not top the charts. Our life expectancy is lower than citizens in Europe who have better health care and lower stress than Americans.
Of particular note was black males who's life expectancy hovers around 69-70 years...or the age at which they would be able to retire and collect a check for all those years of paying. Whites do fare a little bit better but not by that much.
It would seem the plan for us is to have working class Americans pay into a system then force them to wait until close the age at which they statistically would be expected to die before collecting.
I can see how this would "save" Social Security...but to what end and to who's benefit?
With a current trust fund of well over $2 Trillion dollars this is a wad of cash that has some GOP congressmen turning giddy at the possibilities. By gradually increasing the retirement age to the point no one will live to collect more than a couple of years at best, this fund will grow and grow.
Somewhere along this line the bright idea will emerge ( I believe it is already there now ) again to try to privatize the system. "Privatize" is a fancy word the GOP likes to use to describe stealing money that belongs to American Citizens, putting it into harms way in private corporate hands.
Imagine the gleam in the eyes of the insurance giants when presented with a government check for $2 Trillion dollars to invest "on our behalf". Imagine if the Bush attempt at privatization had succeeded prior to the economic crash. What would have happened to all our cash and our retirement? Would you or your elderly relatives have been evicted, unable to pay rent or buy food?
Banks got bailouts. Would we have to bail out our own retirement or do without. If we bailed ourselves out that would mean we paid into our retirement twice! And some wealthy bankers got to pocket the first go-round. They would then line up to do it all over again...such suckers as we are we would let them because congress won't close those holes in our financial security.
The Social Security trust fund belongs to the multitude of middle class Americans who paid into it, but a few American Corporations have "Comrades in Congress" who would take our money and give it to a few very wealthy insurance giants to play with at our expense. Is part of the prelude to assure this pile of loot grows by collecting more then delaying payment until we are ready to die?
If you think Social Security and Medicare belong to you, me, your relatives, neighbors and friends but NOT to private insurance executives, you better speak up soon! We paid for it, let's keep what belongs to us.
