archived: 13 - 19 Feb, 2005 Back Next
WILLIAM (“Bill”) TOOLE
Junkie: Bill Toole has written an excellent Letter To The Editor of the Gaston Gazette. TPJ publishes Toole’s letter as a reminder that readers write letters to their local newspapers. Letters To The Editor are an important part of shaping public opinion.
Toole’s letter hits the right points and presents the Social Security “privatization” issues in the context of excellent moral values. Well done!
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Re: Letter to the Editor – Private Investment Accounts for Social Security Ignore American Values
Dear Mr. Editor:
Ever since the time of Franklin Roosevelt younger Americans have followed the Biblical commandment to protect the weak and honor our fathers and mothers. Through Social Security Americans have willingly contributed a portion of their wages to make sure the elderly, widows and orphans have a minimum level of support. For years, these contributions have exceeded the safety net payments because the number of people paying has exceeded the number of people receiving support. Uncle Sam “borrowed” the excess to pay other bills. By 2018, however, Social Security payments to retiring baby boomers will exceed the amounts paid by younger generations, unless we make changes.
The looming shortfall comes as no surprise. We are a healthy people -- retirees live longer than ever before -- and families are smaller. For years economists and politicians, primarily Democrats, urged Americans to wrestle with this problem. Three actions are obvious: reduce benefits to the wealthiest who are least in need of a safety net; raise the retirement age and keep healthy citizens working; and increase the number of workers contributing to Social Security by embracing wise immigration policies like those that first built this country.
President Bush proposes that we use “personal investment accounts” to gamble in the stock market with our parent’s safety net. Stock market investments have their place. We should encourage proper investments with money we can afford to lose. Permitting people to gamble with the safety net of others, however, not only risks financial bankruptcy, but moral bankruptcy as well.
To fund these personal investment accounts, Americans would have to divert $754 billion over the next five years from Social Security payments. To make good on the safety net of Social Security payments we promised our elderly, we would have to fund those payments through some combination of higher taxes, borrowing (think higher taxes) or reduced benefits. These investment accounts will not only worsen the financial condition of social security, they will erode our already weakened economy.
For sure, some Americans will invest well and increase their personal retirement payout. Abilities vary, though, and many more Americans would be the loser. When it comes to stock market investments, just like casino gambling the only guaranteed winners are the investment houses on Wall Street. You can be sure that after having made Wall Street rich we will be picking up payments to the destitute elderly who were bilked, flimflammed and just plain unlucky with these so-called “investment accounts.” Americans will never shirk their moral obligations to care for the weak among us.
We cannot permit gambling with our elder’s safety net. No one expects to live high off Social Security payments. Yet private investment accounts rob Social Security of its core strength – steady, reliable boring payments – and risk that money for the selfish hope that we can hit it big and live large. We must never forget the simple moral value behind Social Security – we take care of our parents, no matter what the cost.
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BY ERIC COX
“Values?”
The notion that President Bush won in large measure on value issues turns reality upside down. The issues in this category of 'values' for our President are mostly measures that turn neighbor against neighbor and divide the country. The list is long: the marriage amendment that is subtle gay bashing, abortion, stem cell research, opposition to affirmative action, gun control, prayer in public schools, vouchers, and the war in Iraq. All these issues roil calm waters and set the stage for bitter confrontations of citizen against citizen. Our benighted media blithely tiptoe over these wedge issues, not delving into their corrosive impact.
An alert press could show how these ill-chosen measures are poisonous to our civic hygiene. However there is little chance of that. Rather, both the New York Times and the Washington Post could manage only to apologize for taking the administration at its word for its deceptions about the Iraq war. So far, it seems, the major electronic media have not so confessed. Well, maybe, we should be thankful for small things, namely two leading newspapers admitting they are no good at journalism.
Of course an alert press cold have pointed out that the most serious moral issue is that the richest country in history allows about one in five children to languish in poverty, with lower immunization rates than a few poor nations and allows many of these children to go to bed hungry. Worse yet is the dismal record of all 50 states in protecting the children under their custody. Not one of the fifty meets acceptable standards for protecting children under their care. And the time-honored command to honor thy parents can be ignored by the administration by privatizing social security.
The Democrats, if alert, could take the offensive on the real issues of moral values and present a united front in correcting the abuses listed. John Edwards hinted at this with his two Americas, rich and deprived. Protecting poor children and the least among us are values most voters would embrace, if given a choice. But they may not have this option and may have to settle for Bush lite.
Last Update: 03/23/2006