Social Security is Wage Insurance

[FogerRox]

The political optics of Social Security are very important. The system was specifically designed so that it would be perceived by the public as a "you get what you pay for" system, and specifically so that it could not be painted as "welfare for the elderly," where the rich subsidize everyone else. FDR correctly recognized that a welfare system is much easier for the opponents to kill than a system where the middle class perceived it as "you get what you pay for" system that would be much more difficult to kill. How many times have you heard seniors say, "I earned my Social Security benefits" or "I only want what I paid for" when talking about Social Security? It was this genius of FDR that allows them to say that. We should not allow wage insurance to become a dole through the mingling of insurance and relief. It must be financed by contributions to the Trust Fund, not general revenue taxes, or a back door tax on high incomes raising the cap without a corresponding increase in benefits, breaking that tie between contributions and benefits.You would be "ending Social Security as we know it." Democrats would be attacked for violating fundamental principles of Social Security, and substituting a welfare system. And to support that argument, the opposition would cite FDR. It is the nature of the Social Security system that has resulted in the broad support, just as FDR intended.

If you want progressivity, the income tax system is the place for that. Do not threaten the existence of Social Security by ending the program as it has existed for decades and substituting a welfare program ("the dole&quot . That is the quickest way to put the program in jeopardy.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/29/1197639/-Social-Security-is-Wage-Insurance