Social Security Seen as Burden and Necessity

Re “System Needs Tweak, Not Disaster Relief,” Golden State, Nov. 29:

What workers want is a traditional pension that will give them a lifetime income when they retire. And they do not want to have to think about it.

In other words, they want and need Social Security and a traditional pension.

Replacing traditional pensions with investment accounts is just more smoke and mirrors by fund salesmen because 401(k) and 403(b) plans have the same limitations as any other investment accounts; i.e., most employees are not comfortable or qualified to make the decisions required.

In any case, 401(k) and 403(b) were intended to supplement, not replace, defined benefit plans.

Timothy K. Scanlan

Duarte

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Social Security is not social insurance. It is a gigantic welfare plan in which the poor and the middle class subsidize the elderly regardless of need.

The tax is incredibly regressive: the less money you earn the higher the percentage of your income is paid into Social Security, thanks to the magic of the income cap.

It is also regressive in that the poor and minorities tend to die much earlier than the better off and therefore never receive the benefits more affluent retirees will. It is incredibly unfair to younger workers in that they will pay far more than they can possibly receive and that progressive increases in retirement ages also will rob them of several years of benefits.

Michael Peppers

Winston-Salem, N.C.

We who support Social Security in its present form must stand up and shout, “Hey, you who would take the nation back to the boom and bust 1920s, stop in your tracks! Our nation has been there and done that. Once is enough.”

Lloyd G. Martinsen

Canyon Lake

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How many Social Security reformers (educated people who can invest better than the government) invested in Enron?

I bet they’re glad they still have Social Security income that won’t be affected.

Thomas Montague

Long Beach