The growth of megacorporations and their lobbyists created an economic environment that has reduced working-class Americans to near statistical poverty status.
Outsourcing, offshoring, bursting of the dot-com bubble and subsequent onset of the “Great Recession” have decimated personal wealth. Most of us view these economic aberrations as the result of corporate greed and a complicit, sycophantic federal government. Wall Street and our banking system, having been responsible for creating these social hardships, have received generous taxpayer bailouts.
Now there is a growing mandate to reduce, if not eliminate, the one safety net left to “We the People” — Social Security. The latest tactic taken up by our two-party legislators is the suggestion that COLAs be tied to the Consumer Price Index. This fancy Washington, D.C., term means cutting Social Security benefits by as much as $127 billion over the next 10 years. The real consequences of this change may be magnified significantly if we experience the kind of inflation predicted by leading economists.
Social Security is not a handout; it’s fully funded through 2038, and adds not one penny to our national debt. Social Security could be “fixed” if Congress would simply mandate increasing the cap on withholdings so that the wealthy can, at least in this one instance, pay their fair share.
