If you think the Social Security cuts that Republicans & neoliberals are trying in the United States are some isolated event, you would be wrong. The Plutocrats throughout the world can’t get enough.
Social Security
I could not express my joy in watching over a million workers in France in the streets protesting against the government’s attempt to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Common Dreams reported the following.
Nearly a million people took to the streets of cities across France on Saturday during the fourth round of nationwide protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the country’s pension eligibility age from 62 to 64.
The French Interior Ministry said an estimated 963,000 protesters rallied in Paris, Marseilles, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse, and other cities and towns large and small for the fourth straight day of demonstrations, Agence France-Pressereports.
Authorities in Paris said nearly 100,000 people turned out to Saturday’s demonstrations, which included many young people who could not make it to the previous three days’ protests. Union leaders said the number of Paris protesters was five times as high.
One teen protesting in the capital’s Place de la République carried a placard reading, “I don’t want my parents to die at work.”
Others held banners declaring, “No to working longer,” Not one year more, not one euro less”, and other slogans.
Nine out of ten French workers are opposed to the change. The French government is partially justifying the raised age, claiming the retirement age is higher in other European Union countries. To which we should say collectively, ‘WHO CARES.” We should be working to lower it in other countries. I will go into the justification for that below.
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) made a mistake when he announced his plan to sunset/kill Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid every 5 years with the expectation that they would be reauthorized every 5 years. Of course, we know each re-authorization would mean cuts.
Recently, a Republican Congressman appeared on Sunday shows to show how you cut Social Security and do other bad things like raising the retirement age without saying so directly. They prey on Americans not reading between the lines.
Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota did not dismiss support for Rick Scott’s program to sunset Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Instead, he bloviated and hunkered down.
Rounds used the more affluent pundits on the program to make a nonsensical point. He assumed they have good private retirement plans and that they have no substantive government dependency. He did this to justify — without saying it explicitly — that privatizing at least part of Social Security is a possible option to sure it up if they come back into power, the presidency, the House, and the Senate.
The senator used the word ‘manage’ often as if our Social Security dollars are input to a stock portfolio. The Social Security fix is easy if politicians choose the only correct option, tax all income and wealth.
To combat the irrational nature of putting some or all of Social security on the books for Wall Street to pilfer and profit from, he implies that somehow the government will take the risk if Wall Street falters. If that is the case, why the hell put the money in Wall Street’s hand? Just tax all income, including capital gains and wealth. For those who balk at said taxation, remember that every middle-class American pays taxes on their capital every year. Stocks are capital. Real estate is capital. Your car is capital. Your home is capital. How come only the capital owned by most of us is taxed while the ones mostly held by the wealthy are not?
It is high time for us to enlighten ourselves about the world salad that Republicans and neoliberal use to fool Americans. The Social Security and Medicaid fix is simple. Tax all income and wealth. It will lower the taxes on most Americans and provide us with more services. Moreover, it is fair. It is time for the wealthy to stop being parasites. They’ve built their wealth on our intellect, service, and labor.
One might buy into the narrative that people are living longer and that increasing the retirement age is justified. I have a better argument. We should have a lower retirement age. It will make for a better society as more people who have been productive all of their lives have a more pleasant time doing what they really want to do. It could lead to a much kinder and more volunteer society.
For those who think we cannot afford that, that is what a rich, greedy, selfish plutocracy would like you to believe. Robotics, efficiency, and productivity have increased exponentially. Many fear automation. I think we should embrace it. It should lead to both shorter work weeks and earlier retirements. The problem is that in today’s economic system, all the profits from productivity and efficiency have gone to executives and shareholders. In other words, we provided the intellect and labor to create efficiencies, increased productivity, and profits, and it went to the select few.
When we understand the ingrained thievery of our system, we will start asserting our worth and demanding what is ours. Are you ready?
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