Letters: Sabotaging Social Security
Re “The skinny on the Inform Act: It’s likely to misinform,” Column, Sept. 18
Michael Hiltzik reveals yet another attempt to undermine Social Security and Medicare, this time by driving a wedge between generations.
Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff claims that all elderly Americans are stealing from younger generations to pay for their benefits, and he wants a law enacted to mandate that the federal government account for this generational burden.
Hiltzik uses Kotlikoff’s own figures to show that an average retired couple in 2011 actually paid more in Social Security payroll taxes than they will collect in benefits. And all their lives, their taxes were funding these benefits for their elders.
Equally significant, today’s young person will become a senior citizen and, when he can no longer work, will receive back what he has paid from Social Security — unless people like Kotlikoff kill the program.
Howard Hurlbut
Redlands
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