My Pitch on Social Security

We all get older, each of us, every day. There comes a time when we are no longer able to do all the hard work we used to do. There was a time when, once you were no longer able to work, you were out of luck. You would wind up on the street, starving, poor. President Roosevelt came up with a better way. If we all chipped in, we could guarantee a modest income to those of us too old or disabled to work any longer. It was never meant to be a lot of money, but hopefully it would keep us off the street, keep us fed and sheltered, so that we could live out our lives with some dignity.

The conservatives want to change that. They see all that money going into the social security insurance program, and they want a piece of it. They want to make a buck by forcing all of us to invest in their companies, rather than in each other. And they don't want to give any guarantees about what they will do with our investment.

Social Security is the insurance we give each other that we will be able to live out our lives in dignity. Its one of the ways we Americans say that we're all in this together, and we have each other's backs.

As Paul Krugman repeatedly explains in his column, the tales of the imminent collapse of Social Security are tall tales, just like those tales of weapons of mass destruction. The conservatives say it so they can ram through their ideas, turn a quick buck, and reward their friends and cronies. All programs need adjusting from time to time, and Social Security is no exception. But there's no reason to abandon our agreement to watch out for each other when we get older. That's not what Americans do, we don't welsh on our agreements. Let's keep Social Security as an investment in each other, and not turn it into another cash cow for the super-wealthy conservative elite. We're all in this together, and let's keep it that way.