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EXTRA!

Social Security privatization proposals would harm disability beneficiaries

In the discussions of privatizing Social Security, the cost/benefit comparisons are typically based on assumptions that a person invests the FICA tax paid over the working life and holds it to age 65. Totally left out of the analysis is that fact that Social Security provides not only retirement income, but also income protection for workers who get disabled or who die with dependents.

If we take out the cost of replacing this disability insurance and suvivor's annuity protection, it becomes clear that Social Security is a tremendous bargain -- far superior than anything available on the private market.

We in the disability rights movement need to get the message out that Social Security isn't just for retirement. As this study points out, privatization proposals would inevitably harm both current and future disability beneficiaries.

-- Harriet Johnson

Read Harriet Johnson's Social Security Primer from the Jan. 2001 Ragged Edge

Read "Study Says Disabled Would Lose Benefits Under New Social Security Plan," from the Feb. 7 New York Times

 


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