Comments due by March, 8, 2015
An expanded Social Security system is a solution to four serious challenges facing our nation: the income insufficiency of today's seniors; the retirement income crisis confronting today's middle-aged and young workers; insufficient recognition of and public support for the caregiving functions of the family; and increased inequality, now hollowing out the middle class. While not a total solution, Social Security has a key role to play.
We demonstrate that key role, by presenting our plan, the Social Security Works All Generations Plan - a comprehensive package of benefit and revenue changes that expands Social Security's protections in important ways. Our plan is but one among a number of excellent plans. A growing number of United States senators, members of the House of Representatives, academics, and leading organizations representing, among others, women, seniors, people with disabilities, low-income Americans, and people of color, have put forward Social Security expansion plans.
All of the plans present solutions to pressing challenges. All pay for the improvements. All truly strengthen, rather than cut, our Social Security system. Combined, these proposals and plans illustrate that there are many paths to building on our existing Social Security system to provide stronger, affordable protection for America's families, while reducing income inequality.
More specifically, we describe benefit improvements and how they strengthen retirement security for today's retirees and workers, and how they strengthen protections across all generations in the family, including those giving care to others. We also explain why and how the richest nation in the world can pay for these benefit improvements. How doing so can slow the rapid growth of income inequality, while correcting the damage to Social Security's financing that income inequality has wrought.
Prior to the enactment of Social Security, the large majority of workers were unable to retire with enough income to live with independence and dignity. Social Security changed that. But, we may be returning to a time where a growing number of seniors who want to live independently without burdening their children will lack the financial resources to do so. Indeed, the majority of today's seniors are at significant economic risk - some living in or close to poverty, and many others just one economic shock away from trouble meeting basic needs. And, tomorrow's seniors are likely to be in worse financial shape.
Social Security currently provides a strong foundation, but its benefits are far from adequate by themselves. Indeed, they are modest by virtually any measure. Social Security's retirement benefits average just $15,571 a year. They do not come close to replacing a large enough percentage of wages to allow workers to maintain their standards of living once wages are gone. Moreover, these already minimal replacement rates will be lower in the future, as the result of the already enacted cuts, now being phased in. As another measure, Social Security's benefits are extremely low by international standards, ranking near the bottom when measured against the old-age benefits provided by other developed countries.
In light of Social Security's near universality, efficiency, fairness in its benefit distribution, portability from job to job, and security, the obvious solution to the nation's looming retirement income crisis is to increase Social Security's modest benefits. Recognizing the retirement income crisis, a number of policymakers have proposed additional savings vehicles and incentives to save. Some have proposed building on tax-favored IRAs and 401(k)s. But savings will not be effective for the vast majority of workers; what will unquestionably be effective is insurance, in the form of time-tested Social Security.
Increasing Social Security's benefits can be done simply and quickly, with no start-up costs, no additional regulation, and virtually no additional administrative costs. It is very important to recognize that benefit improvements will, over time, be conveyed to all generations in the family and those to come. In fact, younger generations will reap greater benefits from an across-the-board increase than today's old. That's because, in raising the benefits of current beneficiaries, we also raise the benefits of those who will receive them in the future, and because today's old will receive this benefit improvement for fewer years than tomorrow's old. It will also lessen the squeeze on those who feel responsible to supplement the incomes of their aging parents while also assisting their own children and grandchildren.
Moreover, increasing Social Security benefits will increase the benefits not just of retired workers but also of disabled workers, their families, and the families of deceased workers.
Nancy Altman and Eric R. Kingson.
20 comments:
Social Security is a federal program necessary to produce funds for people of old-age. It gives them financial security, and therefore eases some of the hardships that may arise in the later portions of one's life. Since the social security moneys consist of taxes paid by US citizens, complaints have been made in the past. A social security number is a way of identifying every working citizen in the U.S., or non-working for that matter. It is interesting how long ago the Social Security Act was implemented (1935), and how changed are still being made today. The federal government is always attempting to reap the most benefit for society at large, which is indeed a difficult task to endure. I believe it is important for Social Security to exist, because of course one reaches a certain age where it is no longer okay for them to work. Furthermore, the sense that social security will last for a long time in the future, may give aging parents and grandparents some financial cushion to lean back on.
I think that the fact that social security provides funds for those people who are unemployed or retired is great. People who are citizens of the United States and have worked in this country their entire lives do deserve some reward from the government and it's only fair because no one is capable of working their entire lives.
The funds help ease some of the hardships as it sort if is like extra pocket money.
Although I am sure most of us complain when we look at our checks from work and see all of the taxes taken out and money taken out for social security and we complain, I do think the money taken out for Social Security is beneficial. With Social Security being available for elderly people, it takes some of the pressure off of them as aging adults and off of their families. They will not have to worry about financial hardships or being a burden on their families.
With benefit improvements of Social Security, this will be more appealing to people of the younger generation who will be able to get more out of this. With improvements, this will benefit us as we grow and will take financial pressure off of us as elderly adults even more than it does to elderly adults today.
There are many other factors that contribute to the wealth gap but I do believe that social security does help close it. High earners will end up saving more for their retirement than low earners. Everyone has to pay taxes and in the long run, this helps out people. When you go and retire, social security will help provide funds for you. You can not work your entire life it isn't possible. This allows people to relax about their retirement and not worry about how they will pay for themselves.
I believe that Social Security is a crucial element in today’s society because it provides funds for those who have worked their entire lives in this country when they retire or are unemployed. It is very important for those who are retired to be able to access these funds since they may not have any other sort of income, therefore it alleviates much of their financial pressure. I feel as though its not that big of a deal if money for Social Security is taken out of our paychecks since we will be receiving it one day.
Social Security is an extremely important pension plan for the elderly. I personally have benefited from social security due to a loss of a family member so I can personally tell you how important it is. It is not fair that the elderly are struggling to live due to social security failures. It is a bad sign that social security benefits is below the poverty level, $15,571. But it is showing improvements for future generations such as ours. The elderly need to rely on social security; they are to elderly to work and they do not want to have to rely on their families. We cannot work ourselves to death, that is why we need social security and we need a strong social security program.
Social Security is an extremely important pension fund for the elderly in our country. Social Security provided the basic necessity to live for the majority of the senior citizens. People who solely rely on Social Securities for their basic needs are still living below the poverty line and by no means living luxuries lives with retirement benefits average just $15,571 a year. If we changed a couple things with social securities it would make it work for many generations to come. The biggest problem with the social security fund is that president and the government can take many out of the fund in order to finance other bills. Also another is is the social security cap where once you make 118,000 dollars you do not have to pay into social security fund for the remainder of that year. This doesn’t make any sense because if you make that much money you should be able to afford to pay into social security for the full year. Social Security is something that is extremely important for the elderly in our country and is something that need to be fix in order for our generation and future generations to come.
Social Security is a federal fund that provides benefits to retired people and those who are unemployed or disabled. Individuals that rely completely on social security are only provided with enough to cover the bare minimum necessities, if that. This article states that the benefits provided by social security average about 15,571 dollars per year, which puts many individuals below the poverty line. For many individuals this is a significant drop from their usual incomes. This forces people to continue to work rather than retiring because they cant afford to stop. Additionally, the article discusses increasing the social security benefits however it fails to mention the increase in tax on wages it would cause. Every individual that works pays into the social security fund through taxes. Increasing the benefits would mean increasing the taxes people pay on their income in order to provide for such an addition.
Social Security is a fund that benefits those that are retired, unemployed, or disabled. The benefits average about $15,571 per year, leaving people that rely solely on social security below the poverty level. This leads to a wanted increase in social security benefits. However this would likely lead to an increase in the social security tax taken from workers paycheck, leaving them with even less money to survive on. In the case for those that are retiring they should take advantage of 401k's and IRA's and think about their retirement and make some kind of financial plan instead of just relying on social security.
The Social Security System has become essential for seniors. These people have worked their entire lives and they will be suffering for it when they are unable to work any longer. This system will prove beneficial when retirees no longer have to burden their children for financial support. This article states that seniors are living in poverty after retirement and that is unacceptable. It is better to start paying taxes now in order to prevent this crisis in our future.
The article talks about the four serious challenges facing our nation: the income insufficiency of today’s seniors, the retirement income crisis confronting today’s middle-aged and young workers, insufficient recognition of and public support for the caregiving functions of the family; and increased inequality which is wearing the middle class thin. The Social Security Works All Generations Plan is a package of benefit and revenue that pays for the improvements of Social Security as opposed to the current plans that are cutting social security. Having many retired family members, I know first-hand what it is like for the elders in the family to not have enough money. All their lives they have worked day-in and day-out blue collar jobs for what seemed like an eternity. Now that they are old and grey, they have to rely on their children to help them financially. Whether we like it or not, I believe in the end we are all slaves to money, and after all this hard work and stress, to not have enough money to live on your own is absurd. I am in no position to be making judgments on what should be done by any means, but excessive military spending always comes to mind. China, who has just under 1.4 Billion people has just expanded their military spending by a little over 10%. With that said, China is still spending less than a third of what the United States of America is spending, and the US only has 322 million people. Again, there is only so much that I can say about this topic, but I will be pretty upset if I am old and grey and have to think about whether or not I can afford a new shirt on sale.
Social security is a federal program which gives funds to retired people. This is what is taken out of most of our checks and set aside for when we retire. This has become a necessity to most of the old people and I think that this program should continue. I think it is important for the elderly to not have to worry about paying for day to day necessities. People work their whole lives and I think they should be rewarded at the end and not have to stress out. However, this is a great program and all but it doesn't give the elderly that much money to rely on. The amount of money that they get, around $15,571, is leaving them under the poverty line. I have always thought that people should save for retirement while they are young instead of just relying on social security later. You never know, it may not end up working out in the end. People do want to increase the benefits that social security gives but then people don't want to have more money taken out of their checks. So, in the end I think that people should not just rely on the government as a way of their retirement but they should be saving up from when they are young.
I believe the concept of social security is great and it helps people who can no longer work which makes sense because nobody can work for their enyire life
Social Security is a program by the federal government for individuals in need. Whether it's unemployment, disability, or retirement this fund helps out with the more difficult times in life. This program alone, while helping people, can only produce enough funds to keep the recipient under the poverty level. It may not completely close the wealth gap but Social security does help the elderly of the country enjoy their time off.
This article goes over 4 of the major problems with social security; the income levels of the retired Americans being below the poverty line, the working class Americans confronting the low levels of retirement income, the lack of awareness of taking care of family members, and the diminishing of equity in social security. What I believe the government is going to do to fix these problems is take more out of our paychecks for social security. I think if I allocate more of my future income to savings I would not live as fun of a life as I would like. Instead of saving money for retirement, I would work until I drop.
This article goes over 4 of the major problems with social security; the income levels of the retired Americans being below the poverty line, the working class Americans confronting the low levels of retirement income, the lack of awareness of taking care of family members, and the diminishing of equity in social security. What I believe the government is going to do to fix these problems is take more out of our paychecks for social security. I think if I allocate more of my future income to savings I would not live as fun of a life as I would like. Instead of saving money for retirement, I would work until I drop.
I believe that Social Security does help close the wealth gap and it is a program that is necessary for future generations and people of old age. It benefits those that are unemployed, disabled and retired. However, the people who solely rely on Social Security are only receiving the bare minimum in coverage benefits initially at $15,571 a year. As the article states, “the large majority of workers were unable to retire with enough income to live with independence and dignity.” This low amount put people below the poverty line and forces people to continue to work at ages that one should be considered able to retire at. Overall I do believe that the increases in Social Security benefits are essential especially because there wouldn’t be any additional regulations, or administrative costs. Not only that but seniors should be able to receive the maximum amount of benefits after their retirement to feel financially stable for the rest of their life and may still be able to assist their children or grandchildren. I also believe that in time the Social Security system will provide stronger, affordable protection for American families, and help reduce the income inequality that is now a current problem in America.
Social Security was meant as a safety net for people, so that they could at least live at the poverty level when they got too old to work. Privatization would allow some or all of the money to be invested in the stock market, however, if people really knew how to invest in the stock market, they wouldn't need a safety net in the first place. The danger is some people will invest in stupid stuff, and then won't have enough to live on when they retire, and then we will be stuck bailing them out, which was the whole point of social security in the first place.
Brian DelVecchio said...
Overall the existence of Social Security has lasted quite some time now and was very significant. Currently speaking, it is a huge expense in our economy and doing its damage to the younger generations as we need to cover for the baby booming generation. Making improvements to the overall structure of how social security functions can be a crucial tool towards helping with income inequality as well as insuring that future generations have some form of social security to live on.
Social Security system has been requring a overhaul for sometime now.. last time we had a change in ss system was in 1983..a new social security system could The new system would provide a flat benefit for all seniors regardless of income level. Between both Social Security programs, every retiree would be guaranteed benefits at least at the poverty line, and even the highest earners would see a benefit increase. By eliminating most tax incentives for private savings, we can shift most private savings into the public system. Such a benefit expansion would need significant new revenues which we can recoup by increasing taxe rates on the elite financial operators. Also people need to raise awareness about savings and its pros and about consumptions and its cons. Only then the new social security syatem would be truly effective.
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