Values: Fairness

[Richard Arsinow <richard.arsinow@rauland.com>]

The single most important value we should all hold dear is fairness.
If a significant percentage of recipients feel that they have been
or will be swindled by Social Security, or that the other guy is
getting a much better deal, then it is a good bet that the system
is not fair, and needs to be fundamentally changed, not just left
alone and "saved" or "strengthened".

Our elected officials need to keep these fairness issues prominently
in front of everyone during this debate:

Generational fairness:  To be fair, the system would pay out the
same ratio of benefits versus lifetime contributions, adjusted for
inflation, to all generations.

Fairness to participants over their lifetimes:  Congress is already
guilty of changing the rules in the middle of the game.  Social
Security contributions are made from after-tax income.  Originally
and for many years, benefits were not subject to income tax.  Then
Congress made first up to 50% and then up to 85% of benefits taxable,
subject to income thresholds which were not indexed for inflation,
and without making contributions tax deductible.  Depending upon
your viewpoint, this is either a significant reduction in benefits
to participants who had paid in under the old rules, or an oppressive
increase in income tax which results in an effective marginal tax
rate of 51.8% for many retired taxpayers.  This blatantly unfair
move must be repealed as part of Social Security reform.  Similarly,
reducing benefits based on "means testing", and other provisions
which would have participants pay in under one set of rules, then
receive (or be denied) benefits under another, have no place in a
fair system.  Finally, a transition from the present system to a
fundamentally sound retirement system, in order to be fair, would
need to fully acknowledge and factor in all of a participant's past
contributions.