Social Security issues complex, but fixable

David Barnes in his letter on Aug. 12 makes a number of good points about Social Security, but there are a few that he does not mention.

First, Social Security was never designed to provide all the needs for retirement. According to the Social Security Administration, it is designed to provide about half of a person's needs in retirement. Many years ago, I was told that when planning for retirement, do not include Social Security. Social Security is your backup plan in case you fall short of what you truly need. I think this is very wise advice.

Second, less than 70 percent of the disbursements by the fund are for retirement. Social Security is a combination of a retirement plan, disability and term life insurance plan. Over 30 percent is spent on disability and survivor benefits.

Third, when the Social Security law was passed in 1935, life expectancy was less than the retirement age. In the 80 years since the law passed, life expectancy has risen by more than 14 years, but the retirement age only two.

If we want to fix Social Security, we need to base the retirement age on life expectancy. When a person reaches a certain age (21 or 25 for example), their retirement age for Social Security should be set based on their remaining life expectancy.

We should look at having the full retirement age be the last 10 percent of a person's life expectancy.

Finally, it would be very easy for the Democrats and Republicans to fix Social Security. The data is available, but no one wants to increase the retirement age or reduce the benefits. That is how we get into these problems in the first place.

Michael Ericksen

Elk Grove Village