So you want to fix Social Security, how about…… merchandising

Yes that is right let’s sell t-shirts with cute sayings about being old and baseball caps saying I’m old, I have medicare with a new spruced up logo.

Why not? It is certainly the American way.

Okay maybe not, but certain people in Congress are wanting to raise the age for full retirement to 70 to help stave off Social Security running low on funds.

Interesting that the very same people who can receive a pension up to 80% of their last salary, (depends on years served, age) and because of their salary as a   Representative they receive higher social security payments than the average person in general receives want to save social security by hurting the people who need it most. 

And think about this; one of the reasons people don’t earn much through their social security is due to lack of wage growth while they were working. So the last 50 or 60 years of slow wage growth and not just relative to the rate of inflation has hurt the social security fund and hindered the amount of benefits people receive when they start taking their social security payments. Did you need another reason to be hissed off that the federal minimum wage is squat ($7.25) and hasn’t changed in how long? (2009)

Yet our elected officials who are paid by your tax dollars are receiving significantly more than the people they are elected to serve with pension funds, yet most Americans do not have a pension from their employer anymore so need social security as a basis for their retirement income. And we are told we have workplace retirement savings plans for us to save which is true, but it helps if we earn enough to save or as all these good politicians will tell us, make the sacrifices to save more. Sounds like a good idea, except heath care costs are growing faster than inflation, housing costs are exploding, so yep we have all this extra money to save. 

And your elected officials also have a savings plan through the Federal government and you guessed it they also receive a “company match” paid by your tax dollars.

So most Americans have suffered through anemic wage growth, high costs that eat into savings rates, and a social security plan that is the ripe to be cut to balance the federal budget. 

And somehow or another these elected officials keep getting re-elected over and over again to the point everyone wants term limits, but won’t discuss the real issue of holding our elected officials accountable to us and representing us. And some of them earn over $100,000 in pension, receive higher than average social security and have a savings plan where money is deposited for them. And the icing on the cake, better healthcare. 

And then there are some that want Wall Street to manage the Social Security Trust fund. Sure, put the people who hoard wealth in charge of the average person’s turnip squeezed life blood. That sounds like it will work…. for them. And they just love supporting decent wages for workers, too. uh…………… Well they should.

Maybe hocking t-shirts and caps is the solution and you can do that until you are 80 if some in Congress have their way.

Yet if you are a regular reader you know that there are other ideas espoused that at least think about you and I.