Social Security: Some tangible data (and pictures worth 1,000 words?)

[TahitiNut]

Various discussion threads have portrayed a continuing confusion regarding the facts of Social Security ... and OASI (Old Age and Survivors Insurance) in particular. Folks are trotting out all manner of falsehoods and misunderstandings about benefit levels and fairness.

So, I gathered some data and painted a couple of pictures. First of all, this depicts 'retired workers' only, not survivors, not spouses, not dependents, and not disabled. Retired workers.

In December 2003 (the latest available), 29,585,732 people received OASI benefits as retired workers. In other words, their benefits were attributable to their own working history, not that of a spouse or someone on whom they were dependent.

The following graph depicts the Lorenz distribution of those benefits. A Lorenz distribution merely graphs percentages of recipients against percentage of total benefits. If everyone received the same benefit amount, the graph would be a straight line at a 45 degree angle. I've calculated the Gini Ratio of that benefit distribution. This is useful for comparison purposes. We know that the Gini Ratio of Individual Income in the U.S. is between 0.50 and 0.55 - highly biased toward a small wealthy class and large working class. As we can see, the OASI benefit calculation is progressive - showing a distribution of benefits far closer to uniform than the income that assumedly qualified the beneficiary.




For folks who like bar charts, here's a depiction of the relative number of retired workers (of each gender) receiving benefits at various levels. Remember, delayed retirement can increase one's monthly benefit by as much as 25-30%, and an early retirement at age 62 can decrease benefits commensurately. Also remember ... married people who both work tend to 'retire' at the same time. Since the female is typically younger than the male, her benefits will often be reduced due to early retirement (no earlier than age 62).




Discuss.

[GetTheRightVote]

1. So it is the women that * attacks so easily

:kick:

[TahitiNut]

2. I think the neocons detest anything that doesn't further PUNISH the poor.

I think the progressive nature of the benefit rules (largely a conscious economic reflection of "family values"!!!) just chaps the asses of neocons and AynRandians. For some people, there's never enough difference in economic enfranchisement. After all, isn't it a LOT more fun to be rich when there are more poor people to feel superior toward?? Some folks just can't feel good unless others have less. Go figure.


On edit: More seriously, some people don't seem to be able to view anything in this world as other than win-lose - a zero-sum game. These are people who think one of the worst insults is to be called a "loser." These are people who cannot conceive of "winning" unless they can parade around those who are "losing." (Strangely enough, they often cannot even spell "lose" since it's so repulsive to them.)

It's no accident that more males tend to be conservative than females. Males are brought up on playing competitive zero-sum games, while females focus more on the "win-win" of relationships.

[Warpy]

3. Social Security has always been a women's program

Women are less likely to have pensions of their own even if they've worked outside the home. Married women who are widowed find out their husband's pension dies with him. Social security makes the difference between being independent and staying in her own home and being destitute and looking around for a relative to move in with.

Think of social security as mother in law insurance. If you allow Fuckhead to weaken it as much as he wants to, your mother in law WILL have to move in with you at some point.

[TahitiNut]

5. I should point out ...

... that the beneficiaries depicted above are all "on their own hook." In other words, as "retired workers" they're collecting benefits based on their own wage history, not that of another person.

These aren't spousal benefits or survivor's benefits or dependent benefits I've depicted, any of which I could analyze and graph the same as I've done above.

Sadly, there seems to be more interest in soap opera ("infotainment") "news" on DU than in the fundamentals underlying one of the most domestically predatory Bushoilini rape and pillage schemes yet concocted. :shrug:

[TahitiNut]

4. (sigh)

:crickets: