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Retirement

Time To Push For Expanded Social Security, Not Just Protest Cuts

November 17, 2013 Staff, www.ncpssm.org , ,
We are pleased to see people protesting the threatened cuts to Social Security. And, we are pleased that some are beginning to advocate for what is really needed, a significant increase in how much money Social Security recipients receive. The retirement system in the United States used to be a three-legged stool, but changes in the economy have destroyed two of those legs for the vast majority of seniors. There are no more pensions and most people cannot save enough for retirement. These changes are changes in the economy, not the fault of workers. That leaves the majority of seniors relying solely on Social Security, with its meager $12,000 annual income. This only ensures poverty retirement, not retirement security. Doubling the Social Security payments would not only lift millions out of poverty, it would relieve families of unfair economic burdens and would be a major stimulus to the economy since retirees would spend the additional money.

Pension Theft Crime Wave

November 11, 2013 Mark Brenner, www.labornotes.org , ,
The nation’s union-haters have a juicy new target, Detroit’s public employees, ever since the city became the largest in history to file for bankruptcy. Detroit unions will wrangle with a bankruptcy judge this fall over how to handle $3.5 billion in pension obligations for 12,000 retirees. City retirees receive a princely sum of $19,213 per year on average. Pension obligations to these workers account for less than 20 percent of Detroit’s debt. But the facts haven’t kept retirees from bearing the brunt of the bankruptcy fallout. In fact, politicians across the country are seizing on Detroit’s hard times as an excuse to trim public pensions closer to home. For them—and for bankers angling for a piece of the action—this could be the breakthrough they’ve been waiting for. Lawmakers from both parties have climbed onto the same noisy bandwagon as right-wingers who complain that public pensions are too fat, ballooning out of control because of unions run amok. They throw in the fact that retirees are living longer, and tout the soon-to-be swollen ranks of retiring baby boomers, to add some statistical cover to their judgments and finger-pointing.

Bi-Partisans In DC Having Wrong Conversation On Social Security

November 11, 2013 Steven Rosenfeld, www.alternet.org , ,
A majority of Americans, especially women and people of color, will spend their final years living in poverty in coming decades unless Social Security is improved and expanded—not cut back as Republicans and President Obama seek—and there are many fair ways to accomplish that, experts told a congressional briefing last week. “Don’t listen to anyone inside the Beltway,” said longtime Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. She said she’s surveyed voters in every state and found Americans take a completely different view than Washington’s political leadership. “Real people are wildly in favor of Social Security, wildly supportive of it. And this is a voting issue in 2014.” “There is a retirement income crisis. It’s huge. Two-thirds of working Americans cannot maintain their standard of living in retirement—and that assumes they work until 65,” said Syracuse University’s Eric Kingson, co-director of Social Security Works, which convened the day-long session with Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “Somewhere in the discussion about Social Security we forget that its purpose is to assist the American people… The end is the kind of society we want; the kind of support we want.” Kingson and dozen other experts presented detailed plans on how Social Security can be modernized to better reflect real costs of living for the people it’s intended to help, from tens of millions of seniors, to students who lose a parent while in school.

The Plot Against Pensions

September 29, 2013 Staff, ourfuture.org , ,
This report evaluates both the general state of the national debate over pensions and the specific effects of the partnership between the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Sector Retirement Systems Project and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Here is a summary of the report’s findings: Finding: Conservative activists are manufacturing the perception of a public pension crisis in order to both slash modest retiree benefits and preserve expensive corporate subsidies and tax breaks. Finding: The amount states and cities spend on corporate subsidies and so-called tax expenditures is far more than the pension shortfalls they face. Finding: The pension “reforms” being pushed by conservative activists would slash retirement income for many pensioners who are not part of the Social Security system. Additionally, the specific reforms they are pushing are often more expensive and risky for taxpayers than existing pension plans.
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