What do we want from Social Security?

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (Exodus 20:12)

When we were all farmers we would satisfy this obligation by having our elderly live with us. We are not farmers any more (most of us) so we stopped doing that. One effect of this change was that, by the 1960s and '70s, to be old was to be poor. That was very bad. So we changed the Social Security benefits calculations and pulled the majority of the old out of poverty. We returned to honoring our parents.

Social Security is our new way to honor our parents. It provides insurance that they will not slip into poverty.

We know that Social Security faces some problems. For example: there are fewer people paying in per retiree drawing benefits and retirees live much longer than when the program started. We also know there is no immediate crisis. We can take a bit of time to think clearly about the problems and possible solutions. While we do this, we must bear in mind what we want Social Security to do for us: protect our parents.