Richard Wolff: Social Security's Explosive Injustices

[marmar]

Social Security's Explosive Injustices

Tuesday, 07 May 2013 09:54
By Richard D Wolff, Truthout | News Analysis


People over 65, a growing share of the US population, are suffering a crisis-ridden capitalist system. High unemployment, reduced private pensions, fewer job benefits, less job security, high personal debt levels, and falling real wages make Social Security payments more important than ever. Yet President Obama and Congress recently agreed to bargain over how much to reduce Social Security payments from current levels. That would not only hurt seniors - but also the children who help them.

Consider these statistics covering 2010 (New York Times, April 20, pp B1 and B4). Married and single people over 65 earning $32,600 or less per year relied on Social Security for between 66% and 84% of their total annual income. That is the majority - 60% - of all US citizens over 65. Cutting Social Security payments seriously damages their lives. An additional 20% of the over-65 population, earning between $32,600 and $57,960, count on Social Security for 44% of their annual income. Cutting Social Security benefits is a cruel "thank you" for a lifetime's work, a default on the payroll taxes they paid into the Social Security system.

Cutting Social Security is an outrageous injustice that may provoke historic shifts and splits in the political landscape. A new left political movement may emerge driven less by students and the young than by their parents and even grandparents. Planned Social Security payment cuts would force many in the older generation to ask the younger for more help just when crisis capitalism distresses them both. Politically explosive pressures are building.

Since its 1935 beginning, the Social Security system has collected trillions in payroll taxes, half paid by employees and half by employers. But employers lowered wages and salaries because of what they paid to Social Security. For that reason, Social Security's whole inflow came ultimately from workers' wages and salaries. Other forms of income (interest, rent, dividends, and capital gains) - those received mostly by the rich - were exempted from the payroll tax. Also, the payroll tax hits high and low wage and salary earners with the same tax rate. It is not progressive like the federal income tax that imposes higher rates on higher earners. Worse, it is regressive because it applies only to the first $113,000 of income earned in 2013. Wages or salaries above $113,000 pay no payroll tax. Thus, the higher your income over $113,000, the smaller the share of your total income that goes to payroll taxes. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/16213-social-securitys-explosive-injustices

[byeya]

1. I seem to always learn something from reading Richard Wolff. Today I learned how I am being

shafted.

Good info - thanks for posting.

[deutsey]

3. He has a weekly radio program on Pacifica

KPFA every Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern (kpfa.org).

It's also on WBAI, I believe, but I'm unable to check out when.

[marmar]

4. You can listen to all of his Economic Update shows online:

http://rdwolff.com/

[deutsey]

5. Thanks!

[loudsue]

2. Thank you! I rely on social security 100% for100% of my personal income.

I have had my posts deleted by the "juries" because I am so appalled by Obama. It seems like DU has become a love nest for all things Obama, even though he just screwed EVERYONE who is dependent on the social CONTRACT we have had since before I was born. What he did is worse than republican shit, because he promised the opposite.

I will never forgive him. I will not forget.