Social Security - Wisdom Of The American People

While we Americans like divided government, let’s be grateful that we have never been divided on one of our most essential safety net programs. The continued unity for that blessing is more imperative today than it has ever been in the past. 

In the course of my long and very blessed life two aspects in the American political scene and current cultural events have never changed. 

The first is that time and time again we have been told - ad nauseum - that the Social Security fund is bankrupt.  My generation was told we would never see a penny of that investment when we retire.  

The second is that every poll ever taken over the course of the last 60 years in which Americans have been asked which government program is most important to them they have ALWAYS said Social Security.  It has ALWAYS been the sacred cow. 

Those two facts are undeniable. 

A third repeated warning was that if Social Security survived there would only be minimal funds available.  We were told that it would only be a supplemental fund to augment other retirement investments – ONLY.   Whatever may exist will never be enough to provide for a major source of financial support. 

Over the course of the last 60 years, we have seen rising inflation on a regular basis.  The 2008 financial meltdown that dwindled and, in many cases, destroyed retirement investments (that are NEVER adjusted for inflation).  Now the Covid-19 crisis has thrown us into yet even higher levels of inflation.  This year, consumer prices have risen at the fastest rate in more than a decade spurred by rapidly rising prices for food, drugs and out of control housing costs.  According to an AARP analysis of Census Bureau data, roughly half of Americans aged 65 and older relied on Social Security for 50% or more of their income in 2019.  About a quarter of seniors 65 and older relied on the benefits for 90% or more of their income.  Social Security is NOW a lifeline for survival NOT a supplemental fund. 

After 39 years (not since 1983 - the year Ronald Regan saved the fund from insolvency) of paltry Social Security COLAs, 2022 will provide a decent increase badly needed by MOST of the 70 million (1 out of every 5) Americans who are now forced to depend upon the fund for financial survival. 

The same doomsday prophets are still among us.  We still hear the same old tired, fear mongering lies and deceit contrived 50 years ago. Let’s make certain we are thankful for the enormous wisdom of our predecessors in demanding Social Security be regarded a sacred cow.  Let’s make certain that as the middle class in American continues its erosion that we take a page from our ancestor’s book and rebuff the doom and gloom; that we continue to demand Social Security remain a sacred cow, recognizing that it will be far more essential to America’s wellbeing tomorrow than what it is today.  

https://www.wsj.com/articles/social-security-cola-increase-2022-11634067648 

https://apnews.com/article/social-security-cola-increase-4f2cd7b763371b91923227be883e367e