Social Security Costs to Workers
H.T. Steve Morrissey (letter, May 29) comments upon the costs of the recently enacted Medicare Catastrophic Health Care plan. After summarizing these costs, he asks why the elderly should pay for such items as schools, aid to children, and the catastrophic insurance when they will never use them. I would ask him to compare the elderly paying the Medicare Catastrophic surtax with the situation of a worker today.
The seniors’ maximum surtax is only $1,600, and this would be paid only by a couple with taxable (not gross) income exceeding $52,000. By contrast, my Social Security taxes for 1988 were more than $2,700 on taxable income of about $22,000 (adjusted gross income of $35,000). I don’t think most elderly are aware of how much Social Security levies have increased. The maximum annual tax has increased from $144 in 1960 to $374 in 1970 to $1,587 in 1980, and is still rising.
I am not wealthy. I am trying to support a family of five, while most elderly live by themselves or only with spouses; statistics show that the per-capita income of those over 65 now exceeds that of those under 65. My family is living in small apartment while more than 75% of the elderly own their own homes, according to a column in The Times a few months ago. I am not a ne’er-do-well: I am a full-time faculty member at Cal State Northridge, having worked hard for my Ph.D for six years. We own two cars, neither new and one of which just stranded me. With the median home price in California now over $200,000, my entire take-home pay would not be sufficient for a house payment.
Entitlement programs, most of which benefit the elderly, are not fair. They cost more than $500 billion a year, almost half of the federal budget, compared with $300 billion for defense, less than $20 billion for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and $7 billion (federal) for education. It is quite clear that it is today’s workers and their children, and not today’s retirees, who are being irreparably harmed paying taxes for services they will never use.
STEPHEN R. WALTON
Alhambra
