It isn’t a perfect plan, but it is better than we have now. And the usually liberal Washington Post agrees that Fred Thompson’s Social Security plan is an improvement:
Mr. Thompson proposes to change the way initial Social Security benefits are calculated by linking them to the increase in the cost of living, rather than the growth in wages, over the course of a worker’s career. Because wages tend to grow faster than prices, under current law each generation is promised more generous benefits than its predecessor. There is logic to changing the system so that workers across different generations receive the same benefit in dollar terms. But such a change means that benefits over time would replace an increasingly smaller share of workers’ pre-retirement income; it would be better to do that in a more progressive fashion that preserves a decent standard of living for workers at the bottom.
That is where the sweetener comes in. Rather than private accounts financed by diverting payroll taxes from the existing program, Mr. Thompson would offer add-on private accounts. Unless workers opted out, 2 percent of the wages they earn that are subject to Social Security tax (up to $97,500 this year) would be deposited into private accounts.
Here’s a plan that is great but is too politcally dangerous to propose: people can plan their own retirement. Oh yeah, that’s right. I don’t need Uncle Sam to look out for me so that when I get to be retirement age I’m not eating cat food cassarole. I totally plan to provide for myself. And here’s more, I plan to provide for others through charity. Planning, saving and responsibility go a long way towards financial success. If you do it right, you can live comfortably and help others. That’s my “Social Security” plan. I like it better than Fred’s.
