I agree with the Sept. 18 editorial “Raising the payroll tax would not fix Social Security” that hiking the tax alone will not solve Social Security’s long-term challenges and that the program should focus more directly on preventing poverty in retirement. But that does not mean additional revenue should be excluded from the solution.
Those who have benefited the most from our economy, not only from their own labor but also from the labor of others, can reasonably be asked to contribute more toward preserving a system that provides basic retirement security for all Americans.
My own circumstances illustrate why benefits also deserve scrutiny. Throughout my career, I have had access to a 401(k), and I have earned pension benefits through 30 years of military service and through my tenure in the Maryland General Assembly, first as lieutenant governor and now as attorney general. Social Security will not play the same role in my retirement as it does for someone who reaches retirement with little savings and no pension.
Many Americans work part time, piece together multiple jobs or work in positions offering little or no opportunity to build retirement savings or pensions. And even when savings plans are available, the cost of housing, food, health care, child care and transportation can leave little money left to put aside for retirement. Social Security reform should recognize these very different circumstances.
Congress should ask more of those with greater resources while ensuring that Americans who have worked throughout their lives do not spend their retirement years in poverty.
Anthony G. Brown, Upper Marlboro
The writer, a Democrat, is the attorney general of Maryland.
No responsible fix to Social Security should rely solely on tax increases, though revenue must be part of the solution, as the Editorial Board pointed to.
Americans live significantly longer, healthier lives than they did when the program was created in 1935. To reflect this reality, the retirement age should be gradually raised and indexed, especially for white-collar professionals capable of working longer.
Simultaneously, Congress must address systemic inequities by raising or eliminating the cap on taxable earnings. Currently, high earners stop contributing once they pass a certain threshold, meaning the wealthy pay a smaller percentage of their total income into the system than middle-class workers do.
By combining a modernized retirement age with the elimination of the income cap, Congress can ensure long-term solvency while making Social Security fairer for everyone.
Harry M. Kaiser, Sarasota, Florida
The writer is the Gellert family professor of applied economics and management emeritus at Cornell University.
My long path to a college degree
I read with interest the Sept. 19 news article “Growing scrutiny for college’s 1-year bachelor’s degree” about the YourPace program at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. But I was surprised that the article didn’t highlight any benefits of competency-based programs.
I am 58, and I was unable to attend college at the typical time most people do. In fact, I didn’t even complete high school. I thought I would never be able to get a bachelor’s degree, but this year decided I would start that journey. I began with a GED, then took a variety of courses — both academic and technical — and I will be completing the UMPI’s YourPace program.
As a busy dad and full-time employee, finding the time to complete coursework takes dedication, but I am committed. Ahead of my first classes, I’m reading classic texts in political philosophy and history in preparation. To obtain my degree, I will need to maintain an 80 percent mastery threshold (equivalent to a B grade or higher).
Competency-based learning in a flexible package allows normal people like me a chance to combine life experience and hard work to get a degree. UMPI should be celebrated for creating opportunities like this.
David Ashton, Austin
College football’s best traditions
The Sept. 15 editorial “Longhorns fans are a Texas-size win for American assimilation” celebrated the scene of South Asian students at the University of Texas exuberantly cheering on the Longhorns as an American success story. But instead of calling it a melting pot, we prefer a different metaphor: a potluck.
If the melting pot asks what pieces of themselves people must give up to become American, the potluck asks what each person can contribute. People bring their distinct identities and particular traditions, encounter others doing the same, and create something richer together.
College football is the quintessential example of the American potluck. On the field, players and coaches from different backgrounds learn to trust their teammates, sacrifice for one another and pursue a common mission. At Texas, at least 10 football team captains and six Hall of Honor inductees have been foreign-born or first-generation Americans.
It’s no wonder that a sport that models American pluralism so well attracts fans from every part of the country. The South Asian students pictured in Austin aren’t any less connected to their families, cultures or traditions because they wear burnt orange on Saturdays. Nor does their presence make Longhorn fandom any less Texan, the way Bo French supposes. They are adding something of their own to a tradition that now belongs to them, too.
This is the beauty of American pluralism. As Dhairya Gupta, one of the students pictured, put it: “We have a different color in our skin, we might speak different languages, but at the end of the day, all of us are still going to the same university. … We’re still standing behind the same team.”
Eboo Patel and Rollie Olson, Chicago
Eboo Patel is founder and president and Rollie Olson is an editorial and research associate at the nonprofit Interfaith America.
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