It would be interesting to compare the 2012 figure of 9.1% poverty among the elderly to what the poverty rate would be without Social Security Retirement and SSI benefits. I'm guessing that poverty would no doubt be significantly higher given the charts I have seen about the high percentage of elderly for whom Social Security comprises most if not all of their retirement income.
ANON 11:01 -- I agree that the poverty rate would be higher, but a certain (unknown) percentage of the elderly (especially the "younger" elderly -- those closest to retirement age) would likely still be working if Social Security retirement benefits were not an option.
Getting a reliable figure for what elderly poverty would be with Social Security would not be an easy task.
If you think it means nothing over that span of time, then look at it this way. Since the start of the current recession, income had dropped for every age group under age 65, sometimes significantly. Income has remained steady for people over 65 since 2007. If that's not a case for Social Security, what is?
correlation does not equal causation.
ReplyDeleteHere's another thing that happened in 1935....we began recovering from the great depression.
Other things that have happened. People are now more educated (graduating high school). Factory production grew exponentially. Urbanization.
This chart is just silly.
It would be interesting to compare the 2012 figure of 9.1% poverty among the elderly to what the poverty rate would be without Social Security Retirement and SSI benefits. I'm guessing that poverty would no doubt be significantly higher given the charts I have seen about the high percentage of elderly for whom Social Security comprises most if not all of their retirement income.
ReplyDeleteANON 11:01 -- I agree that the poverty rate would be higher, but a certain (unknown) percentage of the elderly (especially the "younger" elderly -- those closest to retirement age) would likely still be working if Social Security retirement benefits were not an option.
ReplyDeleteGetting a reliable figure for what elderly poverty would be with Social Security would not be an easy task.
If you think it means nothing over that span of time, then look at it this way. Since the start of the current recession, income had dropped for every age group under age 65, sometimes significantly. Income has remained steady for people over 65 since 2007. If that's not a case for Social Security, what is?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf
The right-wingers are funny. Without Social Security, old people would be fine. They'd just keep working until they died! Who could object to that?
ReplyDelete