Blog
November 22, 2023
Retiree Benefits Misunderstood and Maligned
The Washington Post ran an editorial, “Why we’re borrowing to fund the elderly while neglecting everyone else.” The writer presumes to know something about Social Security, federal budgets, and simple economics. She fails on all counts.
She claims that government is borrowing to maintain Social Security benefits. Borrowing from whom, or from what? Social Security is self-financing and has nothing whatsoever to do with any part of the federal budget. All but the brain-challenged know that.
Worse, her big revelation is that a study indicated that some of today’s seniors are likely to draw more out of Social Security than they put in. She’s trying to strengthen a misunderstanding that is already too common. Social Security isn’t a piggy bank for people to deposit and withdraw. It is an insurance program. Like any other insurance program, some people will get more than they put in while others will get less. That’s how all insurance works.
Whether she is an unscrupulous propagandist for those who would undermine retiree benefits for the benefit of the rich or is just plain dumb, her exposition is meant to drive a wedge between those who are close to receiving retiree benefits and younger people who will receive them later. But her claim to know something about retiree benefits, federal budgets, or economics falls into the zero or negative territory. If I were her editors, I’d at least re-check her high school diploma.
Gene Lantz, President of Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, Dallas