Social Security’s 77th birthday comes up on Tues., August 14. The Alliance for Retired American is planning events all over the country to celebrate (see details below!). As well it might – Social Security’s benefit checks keep 20 million people out of poverty every year and are helping to prop up consumer spending while the [...]
Archive for the ‘Mutual aid’ Category
Reading FDR’s Mind: “Full Funding” and the Original Intent of Social Security
01 Jun 2012 at 16:04
Eric Laursen
Mutual aid, Recession, Social insurance, Social Security, The People's Pension
What kind of a program did Franklin Delano Roosevelt want Social Security to be? A narrowly designed, fully self-funded system, or a more expansive institution whose funding sources might change over time? Today’s three-way struggle between progressives, conservatives, and the center-right over Social Security’s future makes the question of FDR’s “original intent” more timely than [...]
How Much Do We Care About the Elderly?
15 Mar 2011 at 14:03
Eric Laursen
Economics, Health care, Medicare, Mutual aid, Retirement, Social insurance, Social Security
That’s the real issue behind the Social Security debate – and the deficit fight as well. But it’s almost impossible to have a constructive public discussion about the elderly and the share of the economy they occupy so long as deficit hysteria continues. Don’t go to Pete Peterson’s Fiscal Times for balanced reporting on Social [...]
Thomas Paine, the Tea Party, and Social Security
Sixteen Republican Senate candidates – almost half the field – have stated their support for diverting some portion of Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts. That reflects the impact on the GOP of the Tea Party movement, which so loves to wrap itself in the cloak of America’s revolutionary past. At least one Founding [...]
