Yet members of the one-million member United Methodist Women, in cooperation with the Older Women’s League, feel differently and are writing letters to Congressional representatives around the country. While many of the letter writers believe in improvements to the system, they say that privatization of Social Security is not the answer.
The letter-writing campaign, which began at Regional Schools of Christian Mission, continues in conference schools and local units throughout the summer.
Social Security keeps many women out of poverty and proposed government privatization of Social Security could devastate many women, say the letter writers.
Women comprise 60 percent of Social Security beneficiaries over the age of 65, and 72 percent of recipients over 85, according to the Older Women’s League. Without Social Security benefits, half of these women would fall into poverty.
Privatizing Social Security ignores the work patterns of women. Women take an average of 14 years out of the paid workforce to care for children, aging parents, and spouses. During their years of caregiving, they are not vesting in a pension or increasing their earning power. So, upon retirement, they often depend almost solely on Social Security.
Julie Taylor, executive secretary for children, youth and family advocacy of the Women’s Division, says that financial analysts and politicians often speak about retirement in terms of a three-legged stool.
"They say you should plan to live on your social security, pension, and savings. But because of lower wages and work patterns of women, pensions and savings are often minimal or nonexistent," says Ms. Taylor. "More than a quarter of women over the retirement age rely on Social Security for ninety percent of their income."
Social Security is more than a safety net for many women and minorities who are low-wage earners. If Social Security is privatized, they won’t have wages to invest. If they do invest some wages, a volatile stock market could wipe out their investments.
"Besides helping older women, social security is an insurance system for divorced women, widows, children, and people with disabilities. Privatizing social security eliminates this safety net and could leave many people spiraling toward poverty," says Ms. Taylor.
"It’s part of our Christian responsibility to advocate with these women for a social insurance system that is fair for everyone, not just those who are able to invest and do it well."
Investment companies will fare well if Social Security is privatized and Wall Street companies plan on launching a multi-million dollar ad campaign to urge for privatization, according to the Wall Street Journal.
If Social Security is privatized, the common person will lose money, but Wall Street will gain more than $240 billion dollars in the first 12 years, according to the AFL-CIO.
Ms. Taylor says that the Social Security system is far from perfect, but there are ways to improve it without taking away safety nets of women and others.
The Older Women’s League suggests several options for making improvements to the Social Security system. They are calling upon the government to discuss using general revenues to meet it obligations through the year 2038. They are advocating to have all wage bases subject to payroll tax and credited for benefit calculations. The League also suggests that the government invest 40% of the Trust Fund in stocks, similar to private pension plans, so that there are shared risks and shared benefits for Social Security.
The Women’s Division represents United Methodist Women, a one-million member organization whose purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. Members raise more than $20 million a year for programs and projects related to women, children and youth in the United States and in more than 100 countries around the world.
# # #