If You Are A Baby Boomer - the real reason YOU SHOULD BE FURIOUS over CPI cuts:

[customerserviceguy]

148. You're welcome

I appreciate the civility you've shown, I don't get that a lot around here when I share my fears about Social Security here. It's much easier to ignore things, or think that some kind of 'karma' is going to make everything right by punishing the guilty, rewarding the virtuous, and sparing the innocent. I gave up all religion, including fuzzy thinking about how unseen forces somehow will make things 'fair'.

As you can see, I don't view the FICA taxes paid by people to have been any sort of investment. All they did was make it possible for the generations to live apart in separate homes, rather than in the same home, as was done by working people before Social Security. My parents' taxes paid to give my grandparents some comfort in their old age, mine went to them, and I'm afraid that my children and grandchildren's generations won't be so happy about keeping this going, especially when there are so many of us, and so few of them, most of them making less money (inflation factored in) than the baby boomers.

We can make this easier for future generations by taking steps now. How much more devestating will it be for the Social Security Administration to suddenly cut benefits by 30% in the 2030's, rather than to have a chained-CPI COLA now? I have other ideas, as well that I've put up here, that have been pooh-poohed. For instance, if we raise the wage base on employee contributions modestly (say to $150K, then raise that by inflation every year, just like we do with tax brackets) it would cause only a modest raise in the maximum Social Security benefit. However, we could make the sky the limit on the employer's share. If a big bank wants to pay ten million bucks to a CEO to run the place into the ground, shouldn't they pay FICA tax on the whole ten million? It doesn't create an 'infinte' maximum benefit for the CEO when he's washed up and retired, but it does raise money by those who think they've got a lot of it to burn.

We are a wealthy nation. That's one of many reasons why so many wish to come here, even risking their lives in the process. However, we cannot suppose that the 1945-2000 prosperity was the norm. It was provided by an oil boom that went bust about 1970. At about that time, the concept of the COLA was added to Social Security. It took only about a decade and a relatively mild recession (compared to the present one) to cause Congress to see where that was leading, and we got the 1983 reforms that made sure the system would cut back on payments and raise more in taxes. Had that money been truly invested in fully negotiable securities, it might have grown to an impressive sum. But it's too late to turn back the clock to make that happen.

Look into Dr. Allen W. Smith. He's not a Heritage Foundation whack job, or any kind of right wing propagandist. The reason you probably have NOT heard about him is that the Republicans despise him. However, he does not sugarcoat the future, he's going to tell you the ugly truth about all of this, and why politicians from both sides will eventually have to deal with the realities that are in place right now that need to be fixed.

We can shape that debate with our notions of fairness and justice, or we can wait until the GOP swings back into power in a future election.