Pensions, Social Security not similar

In response to Mr. Urbanek's letter (Fence Post, Nov. 22) telling us how fortunate we are to be paying into the Teachers Retirement System, I have never seen a letter so full of half truths and distorted information.

In one example, he states teachers pay 9.4 percent of their pay to TRS annually and Social Security gets only 6.2 percent from nonteachers. The truth is that all employers of those paying into Social Security also match the 6.2 percent, making the total 12.4 percent, versus the teachers' 9.4 percent.

Mr. Urbanek, as public information officer for the TRS, should know better than to try to compare teachers' retirement to the public sector's Social Security. One only needs to compare total dollars paid in, years to retirement minimum age, dollars paid during retirement, dollar adjustments by years in connection to Medicare.

Mr. Urbanek, I paid into Social Security for over 45 years and my various employers matched it dollar for dollar and my retirement payment is nowhere close to the 80 percent the unions look for. Try 30 percent and a retirement at 66.

I think a fair solution is to have TRS go into the Social Security system with the other 78 percent of Americans and this would then assist our politicians in rescuing Social Security and Medicare.

Robert Kennedy

Palatine