Since we’ve looked at Messrs McCain and Obama’s positions on Social Security, it is now time for my proposal to fix Social Security.  There are two issues here.  The first is the looming bankruptcy of the system.  The second is the long-term, efficient operation of Social Security.  These problems need to be separated, because they require very different medicine.  Let’s begin with the goal of Social Security.  The goal is to reinforce the social compact that exists between today’s workers and today’s retirees.  As long as people wish to retire, they will require a means to finance it.  The role of Social Security is to provide a level of material living below which no retiree will subsist.  This level is absolute, it applies to every retiree whether one enters retirement in opulence or indigence.  This universal inclusion forms the fabric of the social compact that binds us all together.  Now that we have a guiding philosophy of sorts, let’s turn to the solutions.

To remedy the looming bankruptcy, a few things must be done, but they all involve increasing revenues. [Read more →]

Obama promises (around minute 5) to protect Social Security, “today, tomorrow and forever.”  Perhaps he was thinking of the Elvis Presley song.  Obama’s love for Social Security aside, what does he plan to do to keep his loved one from a retirement of penury and destitution?  His stance is similar to McCain’s,

We… have an obligation to protect Social Security and ensure that it’s a safety net the American people can count on today, tomorrow and forever. Social Security is the cornerstone of the social compact in this country… [Read more →]

John McCain recently quipped, “Social Security is a disgrace.”  It was one of those regularly occurring political gaffes that make watching politics so much fun.  I would surmise that he is spinning this as, “what I meant to say was the way in which our government has handled the social security program is a disgrace.”  Only McCain knows, but that doesn’t bar us from analyzing his previous positions and current, written proposals for Social Security.  McCain has taken a vow to reform social security in his first term in office.  However, McCain is as vague about his proposed reforms as a candidate for president can be.  This is a quote from his recently published, 15 page Economic Plan, from page 5,

John McCain will fight to save the future of Social Security, and he believes that we may meet our obligations to the retirees of today and the future without raising taxes. [Read more →]

The third rail of American politics is up next in our look at the policies of Senators McCain and Obama.  In short, social security is a government mandated transfer of money from today’s workers to today’s retirees.  The program began during the Great Depression with the passage of the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935.  There is a very long and detailed, but brief, history on the Social Security Administration’s website which includes such gems as the fact that olive oil was economic security to the ancient Greeks.  [Read more →]