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Social Insecurity
Dry Bones
merican Jews need to be wary of President
George W. Bush's proposal to reshape Social
Security as a private retirement investment
rather than a collective income assurance program.
As with his Medicare drug benefit plan, he has
understated the costs and overstated the benefits.
He's right to review the solvency of Social Security;
but if his assumptions prove wrong, our synagogues
and community social service agencies will be left to
pick up the pieces for many of our seniors.
The president argues that Social Security,
launched in the Great Depression 70 years ago, is in
danger of going broke because it is a pay-as-you-go
system and the number of payers — current
employees — is rapidly diminishing.
He could adequately bolster the trust
fund for retirees by modestly limiting some
benefits and raising revenues with a 1 per-
cent hike in the payroll tax and collecting on salaries
greater than $90,000. Instead, he proposes setting up
private investment accounts with some of the money
that currently goes into the trust fund from which
Social Security payments are made. He would have
the government borrow perhaps $2 trillion to bridge
the gap until these private investments build up capi-
tal and start paying out to their owners.
Unless you happen to be paid as an investment
adviser, it is not a prudent idea.
First, the "crisis" that Bush describes just doesn't
exist now The Social Security trustees, a play-it-safe
group if ever there was one, say the trust fund can
pay full benefits for at least the next 38 years even if
we do nothing. The non-partisan Congressional
Budget Office estimates it will be nearly half a cen-
tury before the fund would run out. Precipitous
action isn't necessary.
Even if we had to act now, private accounts don't
guarantee a solution. The president says individuals
can and will make better judgments than the govern-
ment about how to build their wealth. Some will —
and many won't. The losers would wind up with far
less to live on than the hardly generous payments sen-
iors get now And those most likely to make unin-
formed choices are those already at the bottom of the
economic scale with no experience in picking among
the bewildering array of stock and bond offerings.
Take out the management fees that investment
managers charge, and even more people — our chil-
dren or grandchildren — enct.up worse off
30 or 40 years from now.
Bush says investment choices should be
left to individuals because if the govern-
ment manages the funds, political pressures would
determine which companies get the federal invest-
ment dollars. But the government already does play
an enormous role in business successes and failures.
Think about the Pentagon's no-bid contracts to
Halliburton or the tax breaks just lavished on firms
that are going to be able to bring their overseas
profits back into the country at a sixth of the tax
rate they would normally pay.
Arguing that privatizing Social Security is needed
because we are going to run out of workers is like say-
ing we should privatize the interstate highway system
because we are going to run out of oil in 50 years and
thus won't have the tax revenues to support the roads.
The solution just doesn't match the problem.
American Jews overwhelmingly support the basic
Adios, Senora
Many of her students remember the mock
But Senora would never let us get away with
wedding, when everything in the entire cere-
it.
mony had to be done in Spanish, right
"One day no one in class completed a
down to the traditional Hispanic desserts.
major assignment and she failed us all. I
At the end, they had expanded their vocabu-
couldn't believe it at the time. But, in retro-
lary and gained an appreciation of another
spect, I really appreciate her for it. She stood
culture much deeper than any textbook
her ground even in the face of pressure from
would allow.
the entire class, as well as most of our par-
GEO RGE
Jennifer Raznick recalled the rhymes and
ents."
CAN TOR
gestures Senora used to help students
Bekah said it wasn't until later that she real-
Re lity
remember the tricks of tense and gender.
ized that Gelman had done it "because of her
Ch eck
Last year, she became a Spanish teacher her-
devotion to our class. I continued to apply the
self in North Carolina.
work ethic I learned in Senora's class all
"I constantly re-teach her tricks to my
through my college career."
own students," she says, "always telling them, 'This
This June, she will graduate from Harvard Law
is how I learned to understand it.'
School.
"Senora was the first person I called when I decid-
"If you came into her class and you didn't want to
ed to teach. She guided me through the writing of
work, you were in big trouble," says Katie Sloan,
my first syllabus, my first test, the organization of
another former student who is now at medical
my classroom.
school at Michigan State. "But if you put in the
"She may not be teaching at Andover anymore.
effort, it was a great experience."
But her techniques and brilliant style of instruction
Only certain teachers are given nicknames. One
will go on — in the minds of her students and now
of my journalism professors, for example, was called
in the minds of mine."
"Old Mister Drollery." This was not a good thing.
I don't think any tough teacher can ask for more
But in Judy Gelman's case, Senora was a term of
than that.
abiding affection.
A
EDIT ORIAL
I
t isn't easy being a tough teacher. Students
resent it. Parents get riled. Administrators don't
want to roil the waters.
It may not be until years later that students even
realize how much they got out of your class.
Many of us recall a time when coming home from
school with a bad report on grades or behavior
would call down the certain wrath of our parents.
Now parents are just as likely to threaten to sue the
school district.
Judy Gelman, who retired last week after 23 years
of teaching Spanish at Andover High in Bloomfield
Hills, was known as a demanding teacher. Someone
who didn't back down. Many students deliberately
avoided her classes. But those who went and learned
Spanish from her still refer to her as "Senora," and
they took away something more than another lan-
guage.
In her senior year at Andover, Bekah Parker
recalls, "We would try to get away with slacking off.
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejevvisluiews.com
DICK CHENEY
WARNED IRAN
THAT IF THEY
DON'T DISARM
"ISRAEL MIGHT
WELL DECIDE TO
ACT FIRST"
IT'S THE OLD
"CARROT AND
STICK" 'APPROACH
BUT IT WOULD BE
MCE IF, FOR ONCE,
ISRAEL DIDN'T HAVE
TO BE THE STICK!
.
www.mrdrybones.tom
premise of Social Security: that no American who
has worked hard should have to face old age fearful
of not having enough for food and shelter. Our
community institutions like retirement homes have
worked in successful partnership with Social
Security for decades. Now is not the time to change
the rules. ❑
❑
2/ 3
2005
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