It's time to get real about the future.
Working people are facing the most profound economic crisis of our lifetimes. All over this country, women and men who have worked hard their whole lives are facing long-term unemployment, foreclosures and the dramatic scaling back of their dreams for their kids. Families who have struggled and saved to own a home and build for the future now wrestle with how to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. And after decades of hard work, too many American workers are retiring into poverty.
With 26 million Americans unemployed or underemployed right now, retirement seems like a strange topic to discuss.
It must've seemed equally strange during the depths of the Great Depression. Our leaders, however, understood that financial security is the underpinning of recovery. Instead of shrinking from the challenge, our nation seized the opportunity to rebuild our economy and create a reliable retirement benefit that all workers could count on.
On this, the 75th anniversary of Social Security, in the midst of another great economic crisis, it's time to recommit ourselves to the fundamental values we share as Americans: that if you work hard you should be able to earn a paycheck that supports a family. And that after a lifetime of hard work, you deserve to retire with dignity.
Forget what you've been told. Social Security is not in crisis today. It remains the bedrock of our retirement security system. In fact, it's the only universal part of our retirement system that isn't in crisis.
And thank goodness, because for most Americans, the rest of the retirement system is in the red zone.
Half of working Americans today have no retirement benefits through their work. None.
And why? Because over the last 30 years, we've been subject to a deliberate effort by corporate CEOs and anti-worker politicians to slash pensions, reduce 401(k) contributions and place the entire burden of saving for retirement on the backs of workers.
The race to the bottom on wages and benefits has made it impossible to save for our retirements. Families are using credit cards to buy groceries and fearing layoff notices. And when you add that to the global financial meltdown, which wiped out 401(k)s and working families' hard earned savings, you have a catastrophe that will take years to correct.
The only retirement source we know we can count on in this country is Social Security. Savings evaporated and home values plummeted when the economy collapsed, yet Social Security kept sending out checks, the same way it has for three quarters of a century. It's the most reliable, sustainable retirement program we have.
There is no question it's an essential program. What we need to ask is if Social Security benefits are adequate.
For many hard-working Americans, Social Security alone is not nearly enough to retire on. The average Social Security benefit is just $14,000 a year -- less than a minimum wage income for a full-time worker.
Nearly half of all janitors, home care workers, child care providers and other service sector workers risk of retiring into poverty if they're relying solely on Social Security. Nearly two-thirds of women retirees receive below-poverty level benefits. Half of African Americans and Hispanics retire into poverty.
This should be a wake-up call for politicians in Washington. It's simply unacceptable that our earned Social Security benefits leave retirees in poverty for the rest of their lives. That's no way to reward a lifetime of hard work.
Instead, we hear the same old arguments: we can't afford Social Security, we need to cut benefits, we need to raise the retirement age.
Wrong. The politicians and corporate interests pushing these arguments are the same people who destroyed our pensions. The same people who want to hand the fate of our retirements over to Wall Street.
The truth is that Social Security doesn't add a dime to the deficit. And it's a program Americans want to protect. According to a new poll released this week, nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose any cuts to Social Security.
The retirement future for our families looks pretty grim. But it's not etched in stone.
We can celebrate this anniversary of Social Security by declaring that no American should live their retirement in poverty. We can focus on creating adequate Social Security benefits while funding Social Security for generations to come. We can continue rebuild our economy at the same time we work to strengthen Social Security to meet the challenges of a 21st century workforce.
We can give our children and grandchildren a reason to celebrate in another 75 years.
Visit SEIU.org to learn more.
Rep. Joe Baca: Protecting Social Security on Its 75th Anniversary
For 75 years, Social Security has never been a day late or a dollar short. We must preserve Social Security for generations to come, and strongly reject all attempts to privatize and dismantle it.
One example of questionable accountability is Alan Greenspan - who receives approx. $160K/year even after taking the notable partisan change of heart once GWB took office & OKing the massive unnecessary tax cuts that destroyed a budget deficit & helped create our present financial mess by deregulating & lack of regulation by the previous administration. We must start controlling and examining why only worker pensions are subject to elimination by fiat.
Those who betray their oaths of office, pols and/or bureaucrats must be accountable for their actions. I agree with Lewis Walsh
2) Change the tax code to normalize workers not currently covered by minimum wage laws.
3) properly define & distinguish between those who are truly independent contractors [working by project contract, making independent work decisions, etc], supervisory personnel who are not making mgt decisions, etc.
4) Independent contractors must have access/entry to Unemployment Insurance, and other worker protections, OSHA, EPA, etc.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977229538
They did such a good job with Fannie and Freddie.
Oh wait, they received special treatment.
If they had an "R" after their name they would be reviled.
Instead they are praised.
Why raise retirement and cluck the poor and NEVER SPEAK of making those who have it made or "have made it", to Raise the Income Cap pay and pay a little more.
With capital gains taxes use 2.5% of earnings over 100K for FICA. On Estate tax for estates over $7 Million in value (special exemptions and structure for "real" family farms) 5% FICA tax and additional 5% for each 25 Million (limit of 20%).
Finally lower the retirement age to 50 or 55, and increase initial payment by 10% and add 10% more in monthly payments every 5 years you wait to retire. Make initial minimum payment $2000 per month, not $735. Rent is an average of $800.
There.I did that in 15 minutes. Congress can take a few hours to do it.
Now let's have the media talk about it. Thank you for addressing it on this blog.
But do NOT tell me, after all I have paid into it, I can't clucking get mine.
Ms Henry says that Social Security is not in crisis, how can it not be when the Federal Governments owes it 2.5 Trillion dollars?
People don't need SS to survive. What they need is education to know that the you as an individual can do MUCH BETTER financially then what the government could ever provide for you.
What option do you think most will choose and why?
this is so stupid and just goes to show me to never trust the democrat party. all they want to do is take more of what i earn. And i am just a nobody lower middle class guy with a wife and young daughter, whom i very much love and want the best for and all i see from the democrat party is that they want everybody enslaved to a big federal government. give me a break.
am voting for Rand Paul here in KY. i will never vote for some jerk like very liberal Jack Conway.
some of the reasons why the US is in such sad shape is a direct curse of liberal policies. i said it and i stand on what i said.
I should trust a party that do not and have never voted in my interest as I am White, but not Rich or Christian.
I should trust a party that wants to put seniors into poverty and has voted no on everything just to regain power even though they set up a system where the rich get richer, but ship all our jobs in this country, to China chasing an extra buck.
I should trust the GObp to look out for me while they sell their soul to Satan for a dollar.
You need to troll on Beck's blog or RedState.com, not here Bagger.
However, people who deeply support the program, like myself, do regard it as endangered. Americans are enjoying longer retirements. Social Security has never been a "savings vehicle", since the money has been invested in a special U.S. Social Security bond, and the cash used as operating funds by the U.S. Federal government. Unfortunately, it is not a funded system, and the funds were not invested in a modern way--stocks, bonds and cash.
We have to adjust the flow of income and payments. We should also create greater incentives for private portable pensions; annuities--fixed, index and immediate, and other principal secure savings options for personal pensions. Read my blog at http://www.wealthvest.com/blog/category/wade-dokken/. The American Retirement Crisis is real and impacting us all. Buttressing Social Security, while further encouraging private retirement accounts are all part of the long-term solution.
]
You should add to your litany of economic crimes against the working class the fact that
over the last thirty years, major employers have found that they could shift the costs of training employees to the employees. This has been successful because of the high levels of actual chronic unemployment in the US. Education and training provided by employers is rare these days. Job seekers must guess what skills will be sought by employers over long time periods and attempt to acquire those skills at their own expense. Sweet deal for elite employers, not so sweet for job seekers. Just another example of how privatization and deregulation have allowed the powerful to prey on the weak. Welcome to the United States of Serfdom.