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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1953)
12 (Sec 1) Statesman, Salem, OreL Sunday, Sept. 28r 1953 f - m - You, too, Can Afford to Retire on Social Security i Benefits--If You Can Operate a Turpentine Still (Editor's Note: Can you stretch 75 a month,' plus your social se curity, into a living these days? You can if you run a cotton gin, cr a turpentine still, or go fishing (except for halibot and salmon) or hold public office. But for a lot of ethers, the retirement dream isn't helped much by present social se curity rules. That's wny 170 duis la Congress propose that something be done about it) By CLARKE BEACH ' AP Newsfeature Writer ; WASHINGTON ( Congress may soon do something to help along that dream of yours about retiring on your social security jrhen you're 63. . You know how the dream goes: : You'll take your social security and piece it out by running a tour ist home in California, or maybe Florida ... Or live, the year around at that waterside resort 'where you spend your vacations and hire out your jnotorboat for fishing parties ... Or maybe do a little farming or real estate work. Trouble is that, as of now. you can't count too much on .Uncle Sam's cooperation. Under present law you probably wouldn't be able to earn any kind of a substantial Income at the same time you draw social security chekcs. Those social security taxes that are taken out of your pay check simply are not buying anything comparable to a private annuity. If you earn more than $73 a month in employment "covered" by social security you can't get any social security retirement benefits not until you are 75. Nor can you get them if you earn more than $900 a year in self-employment (that figures out at. $75 a month, too) except in certain activities. Coverage Spreads The trend for years has been to put more employment and self-employment under social security. One of the last things President Eisen hower did before Congress adjourn ed was to propose that some 10 million more persons be covered. Congress probably will go along at least part way on this. On the other hand there's a grow ing movement in Congress to per mit persons drawing social secur ity old age benefits to earn as much as they please in any kind of work. Twenty-five bills were introduced in the last session to permit this. All told. 170 bills dealing with the Income of the aged are being stud ied by a House Ways and Means Subcommittee. Would Raise Limit Forty - four of the proposals would raise the limit on what you can earn in covered employment to amounts ranging from $100 to $230 a month instead of the pres ent $75. -rn'-et ' ' The Ways and Means Committee plans to make some recommenda tions before the next session of Con gress opens. I was told "the pres sure is terrific on this people all over the country are writing their congressmen," and it seems fairly certain the ceiling will be raised to some, extent, " .;- However, Congress probably will take a long, hard look at the cost. Robert Ball, acting director of the Old Age and Survivors' Insurance (OASD Bureau, estimates that if the limit on earnings of the aged were abolished the cost of retire ment benefits - would increase by $1,400,000,000 or 50 per cent a year: Many Working "About 1,431,000 persons who have social security insurance and are 65 or older are still working," he said. "If they were permitted to draw retirement benefits and keep on working, social security taxes would have to be raised, or benefit pay ments to widows and children or the money would have to come out of general treasury funds. "The social security cystem was never designed to enable people to earn substantially and still draw benefits. Of course, if the Ameri can people are willing to pay for that kind of system, it's up to them." So, at present anyway, your re tirement dream hings in finding a way to make a suplementary in come, which is not covered by so cial security. To Add Farmers You might buy a farm , and run it yourself, since the self-employed farmer is now exempt from social security. But this might not last. The Eisenhower proposals would blanket farmers into the system. You could buy and operate a cot ton gin or a turpentine still. Those two industries, curiously, were ex cepted from the coverage of the act. You could be a notary public. That work is excepted, as are all public appointive or elective offices. You might become a justice of the peace, sheriff, marshall, register of deeds, city councilman, mayor, governor, member of Congress, ev en President of the United States. Employes In the fishing industry are in general excepted from the $75 limit. You couldn't use your own motorboat to take out fishing parties and earn over $900 a year, but if you could get some other boat owner to hire you, you could earn as much as he d pay you. Jobs Covered But don't get a job fishing for salmon or halibut, and don't work on craft of more than 10 tons. Those jobs are covered. You might get Work with a for eign government, either in this country or abroad. Or with the United Nations or some other in ternational organization. They are all excepted. Most employes in charitable and religious organizations are now ex cepted. The clergy and other pro fessions are, too, but could, you suddenly become a doctor, minis ter or lawyer at 65? Here's one tip that might save you a lot of money: If you work after retirement, you lose your monthly social secur ity check only for the months in which you make over $75. Suppose you are drawing $85 a month in OASI benefits, the maxi- Tim tj hep fate IAt. .. Tired of scratchy pens that have to be replaced time and aeain? Then switch to the dependable. tmooth-writing Parker "2 IT Here is writing ease, inf-j.cMl iii av ntn nr th nrirs Pull Itr.fff fl hooded point... Octanium point. ..new ink flow con trol for steady, no-skip writing. Choose yours today. New Parker "21" Special $500 SeeaUo ... new Parker "H" Delux V-SO j M nADfCD "M" .. S1O50 Has many "51" fea-: tares. Octanlara point.: Metered ink flow. Vis-: ible ink supply. : mum for one person, and you write a book or a play or a song, or invent a gadget of some kind in three months. ;, You send it to your agent and dd no more work, ever.- You can col lect royalties or fees for years aft erwards but social security still will dock you for only three months -$255. Changed After 75 Another bright spot in the pic ture: You can still work when you're 75, it makes no difference to Uncle Sam how much you earn or where you work. No ; matter what you do, your OASI checks will be mailed you the rest of your life. The truth about social security is that it is primarily disaster in surance. The maximum family ben efit of $168.75 a month could be a godsend to your wife, and chil dren if you died before reaching 65. If you become incapacitated for work in the uncertain tomor- row, it might be a blessing to yoo in your old age; . For persons who have earned-$3,-600 a year or less, the retirement benefit could offer a relatively ade quate income perhaps from $i, 000 to $2,025 a. yeari depending on the worker's average earnings and number of dependents. But the maximum payment of $2. 025 wouldn't be acceptable to a person in the upper middle income bracket, say above $7,500 a year. To retire comfortably, he would have to supplement his OASI ben efits with substantial earnings or have other income, such as a pri vate pension or returns from invest merits. The law puts no limit on these. Percentage Computed Milton A. Ellis, assistant vice president of the Metropolitan life Insurance Co., told me bis organ ization reckons an adequate retire ment income at 40 per cent of a man's salary. r - "Under present income tax and social security laws," he said, "a pension of 40 per cent of final pay would result in something- like 50 tO 60 per cent of take home pay, and even a higher; percentage if costs of commuting, clothing, lun ches and so forth are considered. SucITnestimates help to explain some significant statistics Which the OASI bureau has compiled: 1. In a survey of persons draw ing OASI checks, it was learned that only 4 per -cent retired volun tarily in good health. Nearly all the others either lost their jobs or were physically unable to work. 2. Of the 525.000 insured workers who reached 65 in 1952, only 230. 000 considerably less than half retired and applied for OASI ben efits. That would seem to recognize that in these days, $75 a month isn't much. Now if there were only more tur pentine stills ... Mitchell Rites On Tuesflay DALLAS - Graveside services for Fred Mitchell, 73, resident of, the Dallas area for 25 years who died in a Salem hospital Thursday, will be held Tuesday at 2 p.m. ! in the Dallas Ceme tery.: . ; '.. .- . f i. '. He was born July 3," 1877 in Red Bluff, Calif and married Edith, Williams in 1903 in Rose burg. Survivors include a daugh ter, Ethel Martin; 10 grandchil dren and 10 great-grandchildren. Services are under direction of the Bollman Funeral Home. SUBSTANDARD HOUSES NEW ORLEANS 0P The Commission Council planned to establish minimum, housing stan dards after a survey showed that 43 per cent of the city's 173,000 houses were sub-standard. jf- The1 average ; depth of . the world's oceans is about two miles. Driver Dies Behind Wheel! PORTLAND un An automo bile crashed Into a pole here Sat urday. Police fround David R. Kel ly, 25. Portland, dead inside. His wife, suffering from shock, was inW able to tell police what caused the car to hit the pole. Police said the possibility ef a heart attack would be investigat ed, f . . Oregon Seasonal Employment Lagging Below That oP515 '52 Seasonal employes in Oregon in September this year total approxi mately the same number as in September a year ago, but the figure is slightly below the all time top registered a month ear lier, records of the State Unem ployment Compensation Commis sion here disclosed Saturday. Both the number of job seekers and insurance claimants contin ued considerably above recent summers but were lower than in 1946 or 1949. Unfilled job open ings reported by State Employ ment Offices were highest this year except for June but were below similar post-war periods with the single exception of 1949. Employment in Oregon's main seasonal activities lumber, con struction, agriculture and food processing is lagging somewhat below similar figures for either 1951 or 1952. Lateness of 1953 crops may serve to increase ear lier job reports in some lines but construction operations were not expected to equal the peaks of 30,000 in each of the most recent summers, officials said. Nor will the entire lumber and logging industry attain the 90,000-plus figures reported in every year since the Korean action started. Steady gains in lesser trade, services and manufacturing lines have offset partly losses in main seasonal groups. Merchants re ported retail employment fully up to similar periods in recent years while some service lines suchas resorts, amusements and repair shops showed an uptrend. In miscellaneous manufacturing, me tals and machinery were higher than in other summers but were balanced by layoffs in furniture and ship repairing.' The number of job seekers dropped 3,000 in August to 21,500, the lowest reported this year by local employment officers but about 50 per cent more than in September, 1950, 1951 and 1952. Nearly 40 per cent of these were women. In Portland Area More than half of those looking for work were in Multnomah County while another thousand were counted at nearby Oregon City and Hillsboro. Biggest drops in unemployment during August came from Western Oregon farm areas, especially the Salem sec tion, Hillsboro, Corvaljis, Leba non and Medford. The Ontario and Milton-Freewater areas were busiest Baker, Hood River, Klamath Falls, La Grande and Roseburg reported more idle workers than a month before. The busy harvest period had lit tle effect on the number of cov ered workers asking for compen sation, the records show. Claimants from lumber opera tions are ntarly double those of last summer while from construc tion and most smaller manufac turing groups the uptrend was from 25 to 50 per cent. Unemployment payments for the first eight months of 1953 reached $13,274,191, an increase of more than 20 per cent over a year ago and highest for this period with the exception of 1946 and 1949. With the gain over re cent years becoming more pro- cr 2,000 Minin Men Due at Convention SEATTLE t Nearly 2,000 North American mining men and US. and State government offi cials will gather in Seattle Monday for the I opening of the 1953 Metal and Noumetallic Mining Conven tion of the American Mining Con gress. The convention program includes discussion of U. S. government mineral policies, public lands, la bor relations and manpower mat ters, uranium production and inter national gold silver and monetary policies. Government officials who are scheduled tox appear before the convention include Felix E. Worm-, ser, assistant secretary of the in terior; Lewis Hoffman of the In terior Department's Bureau of Land Management, and represen tatives of the Atomic Energy Com mission, the Bureau of Mines and the U. S. Geological Survey. The delegates are coming from nearly every state in the union, Alaska, Canada and Mexico. nounced every month officials said they were preparing for a big claims load during the coming j winter. With unemployment during the first three months of the year averaging 150 per cent' higher than during the third quarter, the number of idle during the early part of 1954 may approach the record of the cold spells in 1949 and 1950. Paul Gurike, member of the Unemployment Compensation Commission, on a recent trip to Klamath Falls, stressed the labor situation before a large audience. 155 N. LIBERTY PHONE 3-3191 . j (A) 58.95 ' " rv s ! r (C) 1 5.95 Get Set for the World Series FM-AM TABLE RADIO-REGULARLY 58.95 (A) Enjoy staic-fre FM and rich-toned AM at this low price. 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