Women and Minorities

[RRand98163@aol.com]

I would like to comment on the question of unfair treatment of minorities by 
the present Social Security system. The allegation of unfair treatment of 
African Americans, usually leveled by people who applaud such unfair 
treatment in other aspects of American life, is based on the statistical fact 
that African Americans as a group overall have shorter life expectancies. But 
the Social Security benefit formula pays relatively higher benefits to lower 
income workers. To verify this thesis of unfairness, one would have to look 
at mortality differentials by race within  income classes. Very few such 
studies have been done, but those that were done all show that the overall 
differentials by race are much smaller within income classes.  Poor people 
have higher mortality rates and since African Americans are more heavily 
concentrated in the lower income classes, their overall mortality rates are 
higher. I would guess that such a study properly conducted might show that 
the system discriminates in favor of African Americans.  But this raises a 
deeper question--should we discard or outlaw any program which treats one 
racial group as a group better than another group, rather than looking  for 
fair treatment of individuals?