Social Security Fix

I've been under the weather the past few days. Nothing serious, just a cold that is keeping me home in front of the TV and getting me on my soapbox.

I've been doing some thinking about Social Security and doing the math and have come to the following conclusion.

I think that a $5.00 cut in monthly SS benefits would be affordable and would result in annual savings of $2,210,447,160. After all, I think we could all cut $5.00 from our monthly expenses. That's a little more than $1.00 per week, about the price of a newspaper, ice cream treat, cookies, coffee, etc. Monthly, it's even less than a pack of cigarettes. Here's how I came to that conclusion.

The population of the United States is approximately 307,006,550. Of that amount, about 12% or 36,840,786 receive social security. If everyone's check were reduced by $5.00 per month, that would result in a savings of about $184,230,930 per month or $2,210,447,160 per year. Please feel free to check my math and let me know if I'm wrong.

While we're on the subject of social securiy, I have another thought that, while seemingly cruel, might save some money. There is no question that benefits should extend to workers who become disabled. I'm sure the payment procedure is the same as it was years ago when I first became aware of disability payments. The worker receives the full amount, each dependent child receives half of the worker's amount. I know of two cases of workers who were receiving disability payments who added to their family. One was a woman with a chronic illness who was discouraged from having children, but had two anyway. Naturally each child received half of her payment. The other was a man who was married with one child. He injured his back and couldn't work. That didn't prevent him from having another child who then received half of his payment. That just doesn't seem right. If you're too ill or disabled to work, you should not be adding to your family. If you want additional children, pay for them yourself. That was not the original plan for social security.

I have some thoughts on the tax situation, but I'll save them for another time. This was enough of a rant for today.