Social Security

Century Blogs

Ron Sider's unhelpful rhetoric about American seniors

Feb 19, 2013 by Robert D. Francis

Last week, Christian social justice activist Ron Sider declared that he is quitting AARP because it's opposing changes to Social Security and Medicare that he finds reasonable: proposals that would ask more from wealthier seniors.

There are a lot of ideas out there for shoring up Medicare and Social Security, ideas that should be given serious consideration. And I agree with Sider on several points.

Century Blogs

A sense of entitlement?

Feb 07, 2013 by David Heim

Politicians in Washington invariably use the term “entitlements” to refer to programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. On the face of it, it’s a neutral term: citizens are entitled to certain benefits if they fit a certain category of need, hence the benefits might reasonably be called “entitlements.”

Yet the word carries ideological freight—an implication that people are lazy or self-indulgent to expect these things.

Features

Where our money goes

An itemized tax receipt

Dec 09, 2010 by Steve Thorngate

If we can put a man on the moon and then, 40 years later, persist in spending far more on spacecraft than on passenger trains, we ought to be able to distribute an income-tax receipt that says so.

Features

Social insecurity

Linking retirement and personal responsibility
Feb 12, 2008
One of the greatest fruits of high productivity and rising incomes in a country like the U.S. is the financial ability people have to retire. This possibility was beyond the imagination of pre–World War II workers and is still far beyond the expectations of most people living in Third World countries.
From the Editors

What crisis?

Social Security at risk
Feb 08, 2005
If the staff at the Christian Century is any indication, most younger Americans don’t expect much from Social Security. When the subject came up at lunch, all of the 20- and 30-somethings said they assume that they will have to pay into the system, but that the benefits won’t be there for them when they retire.