Your Retirement is on the Ballot

Social Security Needs Reform

The future of Social Security is on the ballot this year and with it is your retirement. The program that we all depend on faces a shortfall in funding by 2034, but there are two ways to make it solvent. We can raise Social Security taxes on the wealthy, or we can cut benefits to all Americans. The candidates have made their positions clear. Pres. Biden said in his State of the Union speech that he favors raising Social Security taxes on the wealthy. Mr. Trump has tried to avoid the question, but in a recent interview, he said, “There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and bad management of entitlements.”

Two Approaches to Reform

We can either increase Social Security's revenue or decrease the the benefits. Only one approach to raising Social Security's revenue has been suggested. It is to eliminate the cap on the wages that are required to pay the taxes. This year, the cap is set at $168,600. That is, a person who earns more than $168,600 per year does not have to pay Social Security taxes on the amount above $168,600. Biden has proposed eliminating the cap for people who earn more than $400,000.

Two approaches to cutting Social Security's benefits have been proposed. One is to cut the size of the benefits that people receive, and the other is to raise the age at which people become eligible to receive the benefits. Neither of these is acceptable. Millions of Americans depend entirely on Social Security to live in retirement, and the program supports only a very frugal life. Reducing the benefits would plunge millions of Americans into poverty.

An Attack on the Working Class

Raising the age of eligibility would be a clear attack on the American working class. People who work at desks could in theory work an additional year or two before retiring, but people who do physical labor would suffer terribly. Carpenters or warehouse workers depend on the strength of their bodies, and working additional years would be very hard for them. The same can be said for people who clean houses or care for the elderly. People like supermarket checkout clerks who must stand for long hours also find that they suffer as they age. Cutting Social Security benefits, no matter how we do it, would be nothing but a way of saving money for very wealthy people by causing great suffering for the working class.

 Social Security Must Be Reformed

Social Security must be reformed. As the system is now constituted, it is not financially sustainable because it pays out more than it takes in. If nothing is done, beneficiaries will face cuts in their benefits as soon as 2034.  

We Do Not Duck Our Responsibilities

 We have to find a way to reform the system because we are not people who would duck our responsibility to care for the old people among us. We will not abandon the people who nurtured us and worked hard to build the world in which we live.  Some people in our society can earn and save enough on their own to provide a comfortable old age, but not everyone earns enough to do so, and it would be wrong for us to abandon them in their time of need. So, we need Social Security.

We Recognize that Social Security Benefits Are Earned

 Moreover, we have a responsibility to fix Social Security in a way that preserves the benefits that people have worked for. We have to do this because Social Security benefits are earned.  They are contractual. They are not charitable contributions. Workers and their employers pay into Social Security throughout the workers’ working lives. An individual’s “account” may be seen as a combination of a savings account (the worker’s share) and deferred compensation (the employer’s share), and people who have worked hard all of their lives have a right to the benefits they have earned. If we cannot pay those benefits because we have allowed the system to fail, we will have cheated them, and our American community cannot be based on cheating.

We Must Be Financially Realistic

On the other hand, we have to be realistic because Social Security benefits are paid in the real world with real money. We cannot promise benefits that we cannot pay, and we have to recognize that, as things now stand, we will not be able to meet our commitments indefinitely.

We can meet our commitments if we recognize that the current distribution of wealth in the United States is unjust and cannot be allowed to continue. The top 1% of our people cannot continue to receive 18% of the income, and the top 20% cannot continue to receive 50% of the income. That is unjust. It is nonsense for us to say that with income so concentrated at the top of our society, we cannot meet our responsibility to pay people the benefits that they have earned.

Social Security is on the Ballot.

The choice is clear. In November, you can vote to reelect Pres. Biden and preserve Social Security for everyone, or you can vote for his opponent and for cutting Social Security benefits. If you want a secure retirement, you should vote for Pres. Biden. On the other hand, if you expect to die young and you don't care about anyone else, you can vote for his opponent.