{"id":723,"date":"2005-01-14T17:47:43","date_gmt":"2005-01-14T17:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/?p=723"},"modified":"2005-01-14T17:47:43","modified_gmt":"2005-01-14T17:47:43","slug":"a_secure_future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/?p=723","title":{"rendered":"A Secure Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Bush Administration <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2004\/ALLPOLITICS\/12\/16\/bush.socialsecurity.ap\/\">seems determined to have a debate about Social Security reform<\/a>.  Fine, let&#8217;s debate.  Here&#8217;s one issue I&#8217;d like to see discussed.  Social Security isn&#8217;t just a program for the elderly.  When a worker becomes disabled, they become eligible for Social Security benefits.  The same goes for children of disabled workers.  Other groups that may be eligible for Social Security benefits include:<br \/>\nSpouses of deceased workers<br \/>\nAdult disabled children of deceased workers<br \/>\nChildren (under 18) of retirees<br \/>\nThe privatization of Social Security would subject all of these groups to the vagaries of the markets.  They would no longer be assured of a regular, monthly income to pay for the necessities of life.  If the economy takes a sudden downturn, it&#8217;s these groups who would be the most vulnerable.  A safety net that has existed for seventy years would be gone and with it the stability that it has brought to countless families.<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t argue that we should examine ways to reform Social Security.  But we first need to recognize that Social Security isn&#8217;t something just for the gray-haired set.  And we need to have a long, thoughtful debate; not a panicky response to a manufactured crisis.  Depending on which estimate you look at, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cepr.net\/publications\/facts_social_security.htm\">Social Security will be solvent until 2042<\/a>.  My generation, and those following us, will be the ones to pay the price for hasty decisions.<br \/>\nOn a separate note, I&#8217;m looking for someone to help me install a new hard drive and DVD burner in my system.  Free beer, anyone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bush Administration seems determined to have a debate about Social Security reform. Fine, let&#8217;s debate. Here&#8217;s one issue I&#8217;d like to see discussed. Social Security isn&#8217;t just a program for the elderly. When a worker becomes disabled, they become eligible for Social Security benefits. The same goes for children of disabled workers. Other groups <a href='https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/?p=723' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-1-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Iwau-bF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the19thfloor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}