Now is the Time to Act to Protect and Strengthen Social Security
By William M. George, President, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
Behind all the economic assumptions about the solvency of Social Security are human faces, millions of people across Pennsylvania and the country who depend upon Social Security to live.
Of the 33 million retirees on Social Security about 40 percent depend upon Social Security to keep from sinking into poverty. In Pennsylvania, 19 percent of the population receives Social Security benefits and 737,000 recipients over age 65 would have incomes below the poverty line if they did not receive their checks. Social Security is the key retirement income for women and people of color.
More than half of all women 65 and older depend upon Social Security for 71 percent of their incomes.
70 percent of older African American households getting Social Security have no other source of pension benefits.
81 percent of Latino households getting Social Security have no othersource of pension benefits.
58 percent of older white households have no other source of pension benefits.
Social Security is not only a lifeline for older people it is also critical to the lives of young workers who suffer from job-ending disabilities or whom die and leave behind spouses and children.
The realities for 20 year old workers are:
3 out 10 will be disabled before reaching age 65 and 1 in 5 workers will never see retirement.
Social Security disability coverage is equal to a $200,000 insurance policy and the survivor benefits are equal to a $320,000 life insurance policy for every working family.
Something else that young people should seriously consider before they buy into the President’s privatization scheme. Social Security benefits allow older Americans to live independent lives. Before Social Security, older Americans had to live with their children or they ended up going to the poor house.
Social Security is too important to everyone – young and old, men and women and people of color - to allow President Bush and the Rick Santorum’s of the world to carve it up into private accounts. Private accounts would require massive borrowing as much as $5 trillion over the next 20 years and would entail reductions in lifetime benefits by as much as 40 percent to 50 percent. If privatization were in place today, a senior citizen would receive only $516 a month, as opposed to today’s average benefit of $955.
We are holding town hall meetings across Pennsylvania, bringing people together to educate and mobilize to protect Social Security. These meetings are putting the human face on Social Security by having seniors, the disabled and survivors tell their own stories about why we must fix Social Security not privatize it. Be sure to attend the forums and events in your area.
We must do more if we are going to win this historical battle.
We must educate our children that Social Security provides more than retirement security that it is also a family protection plan with disability andsurvivors benefits worth $403,000 in insurance coverage.
We must dispel the myth that Social Security won’t be there for young people when they reach retirement. Social Security is in better shape today then it ever been and with some fine-tuning we can protect Social Security for future generations.
More seniors must join the fight against Privatization. It’s their fight toobecause they want their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to have the same protections and security they have when they retire.
Most important, everyone should be writing letters, sending e-mails, and faxes to their members of Congress asking them to strengthen Social Security not privatize it.
By standing together and doing our share of the work we will not only win on this issue, we will also win future victories that will make life better for everyone.
