Social Security at 80: It's Time to Expand Benefits

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Friday August 14, 2015 · 9:06 AM PDT

2015/08/14 · 09:06

Disclaimer: This piece is a Huffington Post column from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, republished with permission

Social Security was signed into law eighty years ago, on August 14, 1935. In those eight decades, it has taught us a number of important lessons.

Social Security has demonstrated that there are some undertakings that government does better than the private sector. Social Security is more efficient, universal, secure, and fair than any counterpart private sector arrangement is or could be.

Social Security has also taught us that some people hate government no matter how effective it is, and will say just about anything to prevent its good work. Indeed, these opponents of government fight hardest when a government program works well, because it undermines their bias that government is the problem, when government is, in truth, often the best or even the only solution. And so they really hate Social Security. It works so extraordinarily well that it is a shining example of government at its best.

Social Security has transformed the nation. Before Social Security, growing old was something to be dreaded. In 1912, a writer described what it was like to grow old:

"After the age of sixty has been reached, the transition from non-dependence to dependence is an easy stage - property gone...ambitions collapsed, with death a final and welcome end to it all - such conclusions inevitably sweep wage-earners from the class of hopeful independent citizens into that of the helpless poor."

LCrawford

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Wednesday July 22, 2015 · 2:47 PM PDT

2015/07/22 · 14:47

2015 Trustees Report Confirms that Expanding Social Security is Fully Affordable

Disclaimer: This piece is a Huffington Post column from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, republished with permission

The Social Security Board of Trustees has just released its annual report to Congress. The most important takeaways are that Social Security has a large and growing surplus, and its future cost is fully affordable.

It is sometimes reported that Social Security's current costs exceed its revenue, but if that happened, we wouldn't need a report to tell us. The whole country would know, because 59 million beneficiaries would not get their earned benefits as they now do every month. By law, Social Security can only pay benefits if it has sufficient revenue to cover every penny of costs - administrative as well as benefit costs.

LCrawford

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Wednesday April 15, 2015 · 12:17 PM PDT

2015/04/15 · 12:17

Disclaimer: This piece is a Huffington Post column from the co-directors of Social Security Works, republished with permission

Capitalizing on today's date, the Fight for $15 (i.e., 4/15) Campaign is holding rallies all over the country, and fast-food workers nationwide are going on strike in support of a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour and the right to unionize without fear of retaliation.

Social Security Works is proud to stand in solidarity with the Fight for $15 Campaign.
The campaign is a sister to our own campaign to increase another part of every worker's compensation package -- Social Security. Our campaign is fighting to ensure, among many other goals, that no one, after a lifetime of work, will retire into poverty.

We are the wealthiest nation on Earth at the wealthiest moment of our history. We are much wealthier now than we were in the 1950s, when we were just recovering from the Great Depression and World War II. Yet today's minimum wage is worth significantly less in real dollars than it was 60 years ago ($7.25 today vs. $8.49 in 1956)! That doesn't even account for the tremendous rise in our standard of living over the last six decades!

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Social Security at 80: It's Time to Expand Benefits

2015 Trustees Report Confirms that Expanding Social Security is Fully Affordable

A Living Wage When Working, a Poverty-Free Old Age When Retired