RODGER WETZEL: Social Security, Medicare are more than numbers
December 5, 2012 at 4:31 pm in Grand Forks Herald
The way some people talk in Washington, you could get the idea that Social Security and Medicare are little more than numbers in a budget.
But for families in North Dakota and all over America, Social Security and Medicare have a deeper meaning. The programs are the very foundation of security in retirement. Continue Reading
Well said Mr. Wetzel….the figure you used of many seniors live on 20,000 is true…you forgot to mention that some of these seniors living on 20,000 a year or under are couples…some even trying to care for and help their children or grand-kids.
Your article doesn’t go far enough.This is a bigger problem than many realize. Seniors will get a 1.7% increase in SS this year…the first since 2009…but their insurance costs are also going up…most will end up with less than even before the increase.
Also health care, asst.living, etc. cost are going up as “cost of living” increases. Most seniors say who’s cost of living?
The whole senior care system seems to be set up to eat up a seniors ‘income’ and/or savings and to get anyone ill or over 75 on Public Assistance taking away any independence and dignity.
Senior care IS BIG BUSINESS and needs an adjustment to be more affordable for all. Tax payers pay for all on public assistance…and the cares given and received barely scratch the surface to meet the needs of those qualifying for assistance.
The monies made in this business should be turned back into the business for proper cares given…than raises for those at the top.
We often wonder if the shortages of care givers in all care facilities is really an excuse used, and is the actual way the businesses (at the top) want to operate.
There really needs to be many more watch-dogs for the elderly. They are legally getting robbed. Those in this position and/or their families can’t speak up without getting marked as a trouble maker, and down the road will be denied needed care or assistance or made to jump through bureaucratic hoops.
There is a huge problem with questioning or disagreeing with anyone of authority in the elder care business. The business is more important than the purpose the business was supposedly established.
There are many caring for the elderly that are going above and beyond…and just as many that should be doing something else.
What is it with so much “Lip Service” yet disrespect and ignorance in the US for our elderly and kids? Our ELDERS and Our CHILDREN ARE “ENTITLED” TO BETTER.
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You are correct that many people rely on SS and Medicare to survive. What is unfortunate is they are the same people who disregarded forty years worth of warnings that the system was going to bankrupt the country when the mass of baby boomers started to retire.
Today’s situation does not come as a surprise. Economists have been predicting this outcome since 1968 (when the current SS and Medicare system was put in place under Johnson’s Great Society). For forty years SS and Medicare have been the political third rail that no one dared touch. Every successive generation kicked the can down the line to the next one.
This dereliction of duty is what brought us to where we are today. Yes there are many seniors living in poverty and many more on the way.
I feel bad, but I am also realistic. In 15-20 years when my turn to retire comes, after having paid social security and medicare taxes for over 50 years, I will not receive even that pauper’s benefit.
It was the decisions of the present generation of social security recipients that bear the majority of the blame for the fiscal crisis we are in. To say otherwise is to simply ignore the truth
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Fly, I disagree that “they are the same people that ignored forty years of warnings.” They are the people that kept their noses to grind stone doing what they thought was the right thing. And most without college educations and larger salary’s garnered these days.
The different Government Agencies Robbing the SS fund to fund something else started long ago (usually with the intention to PAY BACK) is what’s gotten the whole system in trouble. If the funds would have stayed untouched, the SS system would have preformed as intended. Pay Back is Tough.
All those baby boomers have also been working and contributing. If the funds would have been left where they were supposed to be, the role over would continue to work as intended.
You are absolutely correct about “dereliction of duty”…. “Third Rail not touched”…you must mean Not Discussed or Mentioned how the funds were really being funneled…oops I meant used.
“I feel bad…but realistic”….Do I detect a slight whimper of entitlement? Just as “those that have disregarded forty years of warnings?” Like I said…most of them “kept their noses to the grind stone” for forty years or more for many of them…they are even more entitled than you or any of us that have lived with this hanging over us since our first jobs. We are the ones that should know better…not those that are in need. They are the ones that have to deal with governments bad decisions and broken promises.
We are the ones that can still affect a change.
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Yes and no mc. They worked and expect their benefit, and they will receive it. No in that they made the decisions long before we were able. Our generation is just now coming to power. It was their generation that refused to touch the third rail, robbed the social security trust fund to hide the blossoming deficits. It was their generation that invented smoke and mirror accounting (Eisenhower simply balanced the budget using old math).
I am not unsympathetic, but lets face it, they were in power, we were not. Accountability is a four letter word in our culture, but that will have to change if we have any hope of correcting the problem.
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It wasn’t “their generation” that did or didn’t…it was their generation’s “elected public (servants) representatives”…. that became power hungry and ignored the public’s wishes. Voting can only do so much….the same thing is going on now….YOU have the power to affect a change….what are you doing to help yourself and other’s from your generation?
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You underestimate the power of voting to change things; you are also trying to ignore who is ultimately responsible in a free society: the voters.
As an American citizen you cannot blame your representatives. You are the one who put them there. The buck stops with the American public.
I voted for Bush twice. I am accountable for that mistake. In a very real & tangible way I am partially responsible for every useless & unneeded death in Iraq. That is just how America works.
As for my generation, we have to ot only pay for the boomers, but put away more, much more than our parents or grandparents did. We have to pay for our retirement, & theirs.
This is doubly difficult because unless you were in the military or worked for some municipality, it is doubtful you have a pension. It is 401K & as any retirement planner will tell you, you are going to need around $500,000
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“Non-interest income is projected to be sufficient to support expenditures at a level of 77 percent of scheduled benefits after trust fund exhaustion in 2036, and then to decline to 74 percent of scheduled benefits in 2085″
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)#Demographic_and_revenue_projections
At 28, I find it frustrating that I’m paying into a retirement plan that’s projected to lose me .23 out of every 1.00 I put in. If I had the option of contributing that money to my 401(k), I could go back to school full-time, get a better job, and be in a better position to care for my parents myself.
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What you say is absolutely 100% correct provided your contributions were mandatory and you could not take them out prematurely. Where most privatization plans fail is they allow voluntary contributions.
6/10 will do what they should and put in regardless of what their life is like at the moment. The other 40% will always have an excuse to spend the money now and then when it comes time to retire and their account has $10,000 instead of $500,000 they will be looking for someone to make sure they do not starve to death.
Human nature has not evolved to the point that we are able to voluntarily do what must be done. Contributions must be mandatory.
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Top 3 good excuses to spend the money now:
1) Education
2) Down payment on 1st home
3) Start a business
Anyone can choose to do any of these with their 401(k), right now.
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Don’t get frustrated so easy….help change things. If you’re going to try and take care of your parents, go to law school…you’ll need a good lawyer for everything…and to protect yourself for doing the right thing. For generations, and in other countries still, family members take care of their elderly. Now the system is designed to get everyone on medicaid and living in a facility. Elder Care is BIG business for the businesses.
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Social Security is a separate line item on you pay stub. That money is kept separate from the general fund. So why is Social Security even being discussed as part of the debt relief?
For those that think a 401K is somehow a better ‘investment’, that money is just more money for Wall Street to gamble with, as witnessed by the heavy hits to 401K accounts, every time the stock market “readjusts”. (I lost almost 50%) Way too many people have lost their 401K retirement in the two stark market crashes during the bush years. Social Security was not affected, because it is not invested in the stock market. We need to keep it that way.
But Wall Street wants to fix that oversight, so they can gamble with the trillion or so dollars in Social Security, with their heads they win, tails we lose gambling scams.
Before we talk about Medicare, we need to talk about our imperialistic wars of choice that we started at the same time we instigated the wholesale tax cuts on those most able to pay. Actions that directly got us to this point in the first place.
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