First, Marcy, there’s a small historical error in your article: FDR did not hand Harry Truman the first Social Security check. Mr. Truman wasn’t eligible for Social Security when it came into being. Rather, Lyndon Johnson handed the first Medicare card to Harry Truman.

The second item is from BenefitsLink.com, via Nobel Prize winning economist and columnist Paul Krugman.

BenefitsLink examined the retirement income of the 2nd quartile of pensioners in the US — above median but not at the top — and found that Social Security accounts for more than half of their income. (It’s the great bulk of income among poorer retirees). Asset income is, by comparison, trivial.

The study noted a couple of caveats. Pensions will presumably be a smaller share of income in future, because DB plans have given way to DC. Also, this only tracks income; the extent to which seniors live by drawing down assets isn’t shown.

Clearly, Americans need to do more to save for retirement. But the fact is, Social Security is the key to financial security for the vast majority of retirees. And when Wall St. steals whatever money folks have managed to save on their own, as happened over the past 18 months, Social Security needs to step in and fill the gap. There aren’t enough slots open for the elderly to be Wal-Mart greeters to take up the slack.

Charley

These are the kind of hard lessons we learn all the time. As youths many of us were told always strive for more. Better grades better education so that we could make better money. What many forgot was to add “to save a lot for retirement”.

This 5% increase denied is justified. It is set to hedge inflation. When you make it an issue of “they need more anyway” you undermined the sanctity of its simple fairness. If the dollar experiences inflation, pay out will increase in stride. If more, that would be an undeserved benefit(got more than they deserve); if less that would be government stealing.

Sounds to me like people are saying that FDR and the congress of then did a poor job for recipients.

SS should have a surplus but it does not. It has paper assets. Those assets went all over government. Like most taxes it doesn’t go to a specific alternate pot it going to the big pot to disperse as needed. All this borrowing and spending is our fault. We don’t convince others of our views and until people start taking responsibility for their portion of our errors . . . well, “good luck” in that blame game.

“The rich get richer”? What does that mean? Do you know where all the money Hawaii Edu is coming from and for what reasons? Do you know exactly were it is going? If you don’t like how things are going get involved. And by get involved I mean you and people that support you, need to get in the face of the right people and do it consistently as others do it.

I read this article two days after my state (Hawaii) has reduced to a four day school week. The rich get richer on the backs of school children and seniors.