PAGE 2 | August 19, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
This 81-year-old star has never been hotter
By Shaun O’Brien
AFL-CIO NOW
Okay, so you don’t quite know
what to expect with that head-
line. I’m not talking about Betty
White (age 94) or Tony Bennett
(age 90). And this isn’t an
AARP The Magazine cover
story about Harry Potter’s Pro-
fessor McGonagall ... I mean
Maggie Smith (yes, she is 81).
Don’t have my number yet?
Odds are you have your own
number, though.
Yes, I am talking about Social
Security, and it is still the star of
financial security for American
families, even as it turned 81 on
Aug. 12. More than 60 million
Americans count on Social Se-
curity for its guaranteed
monthly income.
It’s not just retirees. Close to
9 million workers with disabili-
ties get it. So do 4.3 million chil-
dren. Social Security keeps
more than 21 million people out
of poverty. Without it, nearly
half of elderly women in the
United States would be poor,
compared with 1 in 8 today.
Through all of its success, So-
cial Security has remained mod-
est. Too modest. The average
monthly benefit for a retired
worker is just $1,348. For work-
ers with disabilities, it’s $1,166.
Social Security’s position
atop the marquee has not always
gone unchallenged. In the retire-
ment world’s version of All
About Eve, 401(k) individual
savings accounts, once a bit
player, first knocked guaranteed
pensions out of their leading
role among workplace retire-
ment plans in the private sector.
Then 401(k)s’ Wall Street and
Washington publicists pushed to
have Social Security cut from its
starring role and replaced by pri-
vatized individual accounts.
What was supposed to be indi-
vidual accounts’ breakout per-
formance in the 2005 privatiza-
tion campaign directed by
President George W. Bush,
however, was a flop, and the
campaign closed early.
Social Security has long been
working people’s choice. In
2012, the AFL-CIO called for
Social Security to be expanded
in the face of the growing retire-
ment security crisis, with across-
the-board benefit increases and
an improved annual cost-of-liv-
ing adjustment.
Now Social Security is get-
ting critical acclaim once again.
Last month, delegates to the
Democratic National Conven-
tion nominated Social Security
for an even bigger starring role,
committing in their platform to
“expand Social Security so that
every American can retire with
dignity and respect, including
women who are widowed or
Turn to Page 28
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