The recent letter (Jan. 2) by Kristin S. Enger about suggested changes in Social Security benefits and taxation elicits some observations.
Being a college student, the writer naturally focuses on the future safety of his or her contributions to the system while the “prosperous” older generation enjoys an excess of Social Security benefits. Had the writer communicated with grandparents, a picture would have emerged of a generation that had lived through a disastrous depression without any social benefits, a world war and its deprivations, had lived frugally through most of their lives and took care of their elderly parents who had little or no Social Security benefits.
While I consider it fair to subject Social Security benefits to regular income tax, to apply a means test to the receipt of benefits, however, would change it from an insurance plan to a welfare entitlement. The deductions from workers’ earnings would actually be a tax rather than an insurance premium, because, with a means test applied in the future, how would anyone know whether they will be needy enough to be entitled to benefits? The system cannot be both a retirement plan and a welfare agency.
