Class And Social Security

My next stop was "Conscience Of A Liberal" - Paul Krugman's blog. Heck, after reading all these "rabble-rousers", I thought it might just make sense to read what a NOBEL PRIZE winning economist has to say. Here is a little sample: (please follow link to original)


"Class And Social Security

Digby sounds the warning: a fair number of “centrist” Democrats – probably including the Incredible Shrinking President — seem willing, even eager, to join up with Republicans in cutting Social Security benefits and raising the retirement age. As she says, this is idiotic even in narrow political terms: in the very next election, Republicans will run ads in which they pose as the defenders of Social Security, while Democrats are the meanies who want to take away your retirement.

The question you have to ask is, why are Democrats such suckers on this issue?

The proximate cause is that cutting Social Security is one of those things you’re for if you’re a Very Serious Person. Way back, I wrote that inside the Beltway calling for Social Security cuts is viewed as a “badge of seriousness”, which has nothing to do with the program’s real importance or lack thereof to the budget picture; that column elicited a more or less hysterical reaction, which sort of proved the point. (Looking back at the column, I was surprised to see that it was about the ISP himself; tales of a debacle foretold.)

But why Social Security? There was a telling moment in 2004, during one of the presidential campaign debates. Tim Russert, the moderator, asked eight or nine questions about Social Security, trying to put the candidates on the spot, while asking not once about Medicare, which serious people – as opposed to Serious People – know is the real heart of the story. Why the focus on Social Security?

The answer, I suspect, has to do with class.

When medical expenses are big, they’re big; even the very affluent are grateful when Medicare pays the bills for their mother-in-laws bypass or dialysis. The importance of Medicare, in short, is obvious to all but the very rich.

Social Security, by contrast, is something that matters enormously to the bottom half of the income distribution, but no so much to people in the 250K-plus club. A 30 percent cut in benefits would represent disaster for tens of millions of Americans, but a barely noticeable inconvenience for VSPs and everyone they know. A rise in the retirement age would be a vast hardship for people who do manual labor, but if anything a gift to VSPs, who don’t want to step aside in any case. And so on down the line.

So going after Social Security is a way to seem tough and serious — but entirely at the expense of people you don’t know."


Now, I really want to cry. He is spot on. He just told the truth --- HOW DARE HE!!!

Will all my cherished illusions be destroyed?

Notice how no one uses that good old phrase, "The American way" anymore? Notice how "Homeland" has become the "word of choice" when talking about the USA? Anyone else totally disgusted with the singing of "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch at almost every baseball game? What in HELL has happened to MY COUNTRY?

Every day, I'm happier that I'm seventy-one, and not thirty one.