Dec. 06, 2006 - 21:12 MST

SHARP INSIGHT

Vincent Carrol, editor of the editorial pages of The Rocky Mountain News writes an "On Point" column several times a week. He seems to make some pretty good calls on things I think, his today's column has in part something on Social Security - quoted here in full (perhaps a bold or italic or two mine):

A SOCIAL SECURITY SOLUTION

Members of the American Economic Association with Ph.D.s were recently polled and more than three-fourths agreed that "the best way to deal with Social Security's long-term funding gap is to increase the normal retirement age."

"That's certainly one way to close the funding gap, and you can almost feel a consensus growing for it, too. For example, congressman-elect Ed Perlmutter, one of the few candidates in Colorado brave enough during the recent campaign to offer suggestions for addressing Social Security, mentioned both the retirement age and subjecting more income to the payroll tax when he met with the News editorial board."

"Have you ever wondered, though, whether support for raising the retirement age might have something to do with the sedentary professions of those who typically espouse it ? Would they be quite as willing to delay their own retirements, for example, if they were laying carpet of stocking shelves eight hours a day ?

One way or another, we've got to do something about Social Security's unfunded promises. If the only possible political consensus involves raising the retirement age, so be it. but a better approach would be to index Social Security benefits to inflation, rather than wage growth, as under current law. benefits would grow more slowly, to be sure, but retirees would preserve their buying power while the system saved hundreds of billions over time."

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I have a Ph.D. university professor of economics son-in-law and shall send a copy of this entry to him. Vincent Carroll makes a great point in the paragraph starting "Have you ever wondered - - - - - -?

I have done my share of manual labor for years and fully realize how a human body wears out, and wears out more rapidly in many cases for one who does physical labor. A point that I have made with him many times.

I also find out that the coming year of 2007 I shall have to pay a pretty good chunk of my income on my HMO - - - that is not how we were promised on our retirement buyout. I realize that the cost of everything is going up - so what is new ? But to me a retirement promise is still a promise and should be kept.

I guess my point is that whatever changes need to be made should be made, but grandfathering out those folks old enough that they can't make retirement arrangements soon enough.

Shades of Enron and airlines messing over their employees pensions.

My point is that those obscene fortunes paid to the big brass should be cut to the bone in an effort to give to those good and faithful servants what has been promised them.

Understandably our system is in a terrible bind, and we can't feed a bunch or retirees and remain competetive with the new foreign companies who built factories here (thinking automotive) who don't have a herd of retirees to look after. (Something which I firmly believe our country's administrations failed to take into account when they let the foreign companies in here).

But to my mind, whatever is done, should be done in such a way that retired folks won't have to exist on canned dog-food as some retired folks I knew in the 50s did.

In my book kudos are deserved for Vincent Carroll for his SHARP INSIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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