Friday, June 03, 2016

Sometimes We Get Results

Or, at least, play a part.

Aside from yay team, it's important to remember that this isn't just some ideological thing, though it is that, too. It's a recognition that the retirement crisis is here and it's very real. I'd say there's a broad enough consensus (does not include zombie-eyed granny starvers) that however we get to the goal, society should be structured in such a way that the vast majority of people hit retirement age with some economic stability. The current system has not done that, and whatever Exciting New Ideas we can come up with for the ideal retirement program (obviously I'm partial to plans which rhyme with brocial maturity), we have a crop of people in retirement or entering retirement soon who have no hope of coming up with that kind of post-retirement income stream. The only way to keep them off the streets, or for the lucky few working them until they die, is to provide non-trivial across the board benefit increases.

And if you're worried Donald Trump's Social Security payment is too large (none of them are very large, so worrying about this is silly and the only people who claim to worry about such things are just using it as an excuse to not help anyone), you can just increase tax rates on rich people. That's the easy way to means testing, and how a progressive tax system is supposed to work.