Monday, March 14, 2005
A different look at social security
South of the border, there is considerable debate about the future of social security. The motivation for this debate is a reform package that the Bush adminstration is pushing. Depending on who you ask this will either save social security in the US or cripple it so as to facilitate its phase out. Giving that this is an domestic debate I have been following it with one eye, mustly to see if there will be an impact on Canada. Occasionaly, the competition of a debate will generate interesting ideas. This article is a good example. It is a different way of looking at social security.
J.
JONATHAN ROWE, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Social Security isn't based on market returns but on something very different - gratitude. . . The reason we set aside a small portion of our earnings each week to make sure no one in the previous generation has to sleep in the streets, is that we owe a debt of gratitude to those who came before us.
In my own case, the list starts perhaps with the wise nurse who put my new baby brother into my lap and said, "Here's your brother." Sibling rivalry never happened. There were Cub Scout den mothers and Little League coaches. The teachers who suffered my antics and defiance. The neighbors who looked out for me when there was turmoil in my home. The many helpers in the faith community and elsewhere who appeared on my path at crucial points.
We all could make a list like that - and probably should. Once you start, there is no end. And beyond such specific persons are a multitude of others - the men and women who fought the wars, built the tunnels and bridges, fixed our cars, grew our food, went out of their way so that our lives could be a little better. We stand on the shoulders not just of giants, but also of ordinary people who did selfless things. We owe them something.
We don't live in small towns anymore in which we can reciprocate one on one. Social Security is a way by which we all say, "Thanks."
The policy types talk about "generational equity," but that reduces it to legalism and monetary abstraction. I'm talking about debts that are moral and fundamental to our role in the society of which we are a part.
The president seems to find it distasteful that we set aside a portion of our earnings for people other than ourselves. But that is the glory of the system, its moral core. The generation that established Social Security understood this. They came through the Depression and the Great War. They knew that we all are in this together.
J.
JONATHAN ROWE, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Social Security isn't based on market returns but on something very different - gratitude. . . The reason we set aside a small portion of our earnings each week to make sure no one in the previous generation has to sleep in the streets, is that we owe a debt of gratitude to those who came before us.
In my own case, the list starts perhaps with the wise nurse who put my new baby brother into my lap and said, "Here's your brother." Sibling rivalry never happened. There were Cub Scout den mothers and Little League coaches. The teachers who suffered my antics and defiance. The neighbors who looked out for me when there was turmoil in my home. The many helpers in the faith community and elsewhere who appeared on my path at crucial points.
We all could make a list like that - and probably should. Once you start, there is no end. And beyond such specific persons are a multitude of others - the men and women who fought the wars, built the tunnels and bridges, fixed our cars, grew our food, went out of their way so that our lives could be a little better. We stand on the shoulders not just of giants, but also of ordinary people who did selfless things. We owe them something.
We don't live in small towns anymore in which we can reciprocate one on one. Social Security is a way by which we all say, "Thanks."
The policy types talk about "generational equity," but that reduces it to legalism and monetary abstraction. I'm talking about debts that are moral and fundamental to our role in the society of which we are a part.
The president seems to find it distasteful that we set aside a portion of our earnings for people other than ourselves. But that is the glory of the system, its moral core. The generation that established Social Security understood this. They came through the Depression and the Great War. They knew that we all are in this together.
