Pick from 5 options to fix Social Security
Do you think the Social Security system is heading for a crisis down the road? If you say yes, then you have lots of company. Eighty-one percent of Americans think so, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken early this year. That’s up 10 percentage points from a similar poll taken in 2005.
Among those who feel we’re in or headed for a crisis, two-thirds say the fix will require major changes. Only one-third says we need only minor fixes. There are many proposals to fix this program. Here are five options. Which would you support? Oppose?
1.) Reduce guaranteed benefits for future retirees.
2.) Increase the Social Security tax rate.
3.) Raise the retirement age to receive full Social Security benefits to 68, instead of the current 67.
4.) Further reduce benefits paid to people who retire early. For instance, people who retire at age 62 would get 63 percent of their full benefits, rather than the current 70 percent.
5.) Collect Social Security taxes on all the money a worker earns, rather than taxing only up to about $107,000 of annual income.
These five are survey questions asked by the pollsters. I’ve arranged them in order of increasing support, according to poll results. Cutting benefits for future retirees is the least popular. Only about a third (32 percent) supports it. Increasing the Social Security tax rate is also very unpopular (only 35 percent support this option).
More people are willing to raise the retirement age by one year or cut benefits paid to people who retire early. Even so, it’s less than a majority for either option (42 percent and 46 percent, respectively). The only option that receives majority support is the last option: Just over half (53 percent) of Americans think the government should collect Social Security taxes on all the money a worker earns.
What I find interesting — and hopeful — is that the option feared by many, especially younger workers, is the least popular. Most Americans don’t want to cut benefits for future retirees. And, the most popular option is to tax Americans who earn good incomes and, presumably, can afford to pay.
Do you agree that we are facing a crisis?
Which option do you prefer the most? The least?
Dr. Wayne E. Baker is a sociologist on the faculty of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Baker blogs daily at Our Values and can be reached at ourvaluesproject@gmail.com or on Facebook.
Comments
Ed Kimball
Sat, Sep 17, 2011 : 1:04 p.m.
Technojunkie, you obviously weren't alive before SS originated. Most people lived in poverty after they quit work. Now at least SS keeps food on their table and a roof over their heads, if not much else. If you don't like it, don't take it when you become eligible. No one forces you to take it. Or move to a country that doesn't have the equivalent of SS -- if you can find one you'd like to live in. My recommendation is multi-part: 1. Gradually increase the "standard" retirement age from 67 to 70. 2. Gradually increase the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65. 3. Eliminate the cap on the tax and tax all wages. That will keep SS solvent for many years.
Technojunkie
Fri, Sep 16, 2011 : 5:33 p.m.
6. Phase it out. 12.4% of gross wages is being stolen from today's workers to buy the votes of their elders. When today's workers retire, money will be stolen from their children and grandchildren to pay their checks. Or they'll simply print money out of thin air, which steals from everyone whose savings are in dollars, though that trick is probably going to blow up the economy long before today's workers hit retirement age. SS is fraud. They've kept it alive by repeatedly hiking the tax. Families should take care of their own. This heavy tax, the largest one most workers pay, is designed to keep workers in debt and dependent on the Democratic Party. It's a blatantly unconstitutional program (FDR bullied the Supreme Court into allowing it, threatening to expand the court with new justices who'd rubber-stamp his decrees) that should have never existed. Do you want the government to put a gun to the heads of your children and force them to hand over their wages so a portion of that money can be handed back to you, if you live long enough? Because that's what SS does. Good intentions are irrelevant to math problems.