Old Mother Hubbard, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

October 16, 2015 Victor El-Khouri 3 Comments

My dad used to say that getting old wasn’t for quitters.  The fading faculties, aches and pains, the constant doctors’ appointments to ease the aches and pains, the deaths of family and friends — none of it was simple or easy.

My dad was a wealthy man in his old age.  He ate high-quality, nutritious food.  He had access to fitness facilities and a trainer who understood the needs of geriatric clients.  He could afford in-home care when needed.  He had a terrific social circle that not only kept an eye on him, but also kept him engaged with life in the world.

Not everyone is so lucky.

In election cycles, many candidates talk about the “necessity” to rein in entitlement programs.  Inevitably, someone will argue that, because people live longer, the age at which people receive Medicare and Social Security should rise.

I can’t talk about the economics of these arguments, because I’m not enough of an economist to do the math and evaluate the statistics.  I mean, I could, but why would you believe me?

I can talk about the real lives involved.

Every working person who gets paid by check pays Social Security taxes up to an income limit of $118,500.  This means that, for example, if I make $120,000, I pay no social Security tax on that last $1,500.  And if I make $500,000 a year, I pay no Social Security tax on $381,500.

(Also, this is just straight arithmetic.  In real life, rich people tend to have creative accountants who probably manage to spin their taxes, including for Social Security, much lower.)

If you are a poor or lower middle-class person, those Social Security taxes add up to a higher percentage of your lifetime earnings than it does for someone better off.  That means you have less money after taxes to put away for your retirement.

But that’s okay.  Because poor people don’t need as much money for their retirement.  They die sooner. This is a situation that has accelerated as income inequality increases.

When I started my professional life, it was common to get a pension as a benefit, along with health insurance and paid vacations.  Over the last several decades, fewer and fewer places provide pensions, sometimes arguing that everyone should have an IRA instead.  Again, this works great if you make a lot of money and want to shelter some from this year’s taxes.  If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, it’s not so simple.

Should we raise the age for Social Security because people live longer?  That might be possible if you work at a desk job.  Old age might affect your memory and your reflexes, but you can probably still do the work.  If you’re a sanitation worker or a waitress or do anything else that requires you to be on your feet all day, those extra years will be much more difficult.

A lot of people will argue (and it’s true, I’ve read their comments on the links above) that poor people bring on their shorter lifespans because they made poor choices when they were younger.  They dropped out of school, or they smoked, or they had children too soon.  To hear them talk, it’s Aesop’s “Grasshopper and the Ant” writ large.

That’s blaming the victim, and it’s bullshit.  For every grasshopper who idles away life, there are millions of ants who work hard and still don’t get ahead.  There are women who worked at jobs but had to be full-time mothers as well, only to find themselves dumped by their husbands for a flashier model.  There are people who had to drop out of school because they didn’t have access to birth control, or the necessary education to know how to use it.  They played by the rules of their time — they put their families first.  People who work full-time jobs (or several part-time jobs) throughout their lives should be allowed a comfortable old age.

Also, I think communes for old people are a great idea.  That will require not just changing retirement expectations, but also zoning laws.

Media Goddess Martha Thomases will always be younger than springtime.