Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

I Support Bill Keating

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Below is an excerpt from Bill Keating’s (billkeating.org) website on his view of Social Security:

“It was a bad idea when President Bush tried to privatize Social Security and talked about raising the retirement age, and it is an even worse idea now.”

He is right on, and Thelma Goldstein agrees– and that is one of the many reasons why she is supporting Bill Keating to be the 10th districts next Congressman.  

 

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  2. With a fund that has, say, 8 people paying into it for every 1 that draws, it works.  But as the retirees gain ground on the number of people paying in, the inevitability is a system failure.  By raising the retirement age, even by a couple of years, you help make that payer-to-drawer ratio stay in a sustainable place.  

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    p>From all I’ve read, the failure of the system is not an immediate threat.  Immediate as in, something thats going to happen in like the next five years.  That’s why I think something needs to happen now.  Since we aren’t in crisis mode, we can have a reasoned debate and plan for the future more effectively rather than waiting until its already falling apart.  Fix the ship while its in dry dock and not while its at sea taking on water, right?  

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    p>I think privitization needs to be out of the picture because the integrity of the system depends on a “all in this together” mentality.  The fact that a man who paid into social security his entire life and retires with, say, two billion dollars and STILL recieves his check every month sounds fair to me.  While I’m not huge on entitlement programs, everyone is entitled to it and everyone pays into it.  If we’re going to privitize it, we should just scrap it because it won’t work.  

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    p>We have to face reality thought and admit that births are down, retirees are more plentiful.  People are living longer.  If it doesn’t change now, it will change later and probably be too late.

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    p>I just get frustrated that the candidates have to polarize themselves into camps that either push privitization and raising the retirement age or no raising and no privitization.  

    • Raising the age is perfectly reasonable for people like me.  I’m in my 70s, didn’t retire until I was 70, and do software consulting to supplement my social security and IRA incomes.

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      p>But I’m not so sure about someone who works in a blue collar or construction job, miners, etc.  Can these people really work into their 70s as I do?

      • They can certainly work into their 60’s though. I had a pattern maker work for me part time (he was in Pearl Harbor during WWII) into his late 70’s.

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    • The ceiling makes the payroll tax that supports Social Security both fiscally unsustainable and fiercely regressive.

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      p>We can solve both problems by phasing out the ceiling, starting now. Every wage earner (and employer) should pay a payroll tax towards Social Security on every dollar earned.

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      p>With that in place, the problem is solved — any increase in the retirement age can then be determined based on what makes demographic sense rather than driven by actuarial concerns.

        • The expected rate of return of SS vs contributions is extraordinarily progressive! At the low end of the contribution scale, the benefit is 50% of inflation adjusted average income for 31 years work. While at the high end, this falls to only 25% of average inflation adjusted income. To claim that Social Security is “regressive” to wage earners is disingenuous and an outright falsehood.
        • Raising the contribution cap without raising associated benefits paid on additional contributions would, in effect, amount to an additional 12.4% marginal “welfare tax” on wages and self employment income above the previous contribution cap (note, this new “welfare tax” would only be imposed upon wages and the self employed and not other forms of income). You are proposing that non-wage earners would get a free ride.

  4. There are other tweaks that can be utilized:  raising the income cap, limit the “borrowing” from the surplus.

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    p>Raising the retirement age is regressive and takes away jobs by forcing blue collar workers to stay on the job longer.

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