Saving Social Security, Episode Four: Broken Trust

Worried about the viability of Social Security? Unless you're already collecting it, you should be!

Follow the animated adventures of Sonny, exactly the sort of youth who is set to get screwed by a system designed during The Great Depression, when workers were plenty and retirees rare.

Episode Four of the series is titled "Broken Trust" and explains the rickety logic behind Social Security.

Go here for embed code and related articles and resources.

Created by Lineplot Productions.

Watch the previous episodes by clicking on the images below.

Episode One: Pimp My Walker

Episode Two: Boom Baby Boom!

Episode Three: Policy Warrior

Comments

[Derrick]

Lineplot oughta stich all these together into a single short film, and show it at film festivals.

BTW, nice Agent Orange soundtrack...

[Tim the Tool Man]

I love this series. Does a great job of breaking down the problem. My wife is an economics teacher at a high school, and I'd love for her to show it to her kids, it would be perfect. BUT, we need a version that bleeps out "ass" and "son of a bitch." Not that I wasn't crackin up mind you....

[Pasha]

Lineplot guy here... Thanks for the encouragement - we will be putting together a clean-mouthed version and also finding a way to get this into schools and festivals. Sonny's language was more controversial than his fiscal policy, with some audiences!

It was a LITTLE unpredicted that a seemingly larger financial issue came up to divert attention from SS, but this issue won't go away because of another crisis.

That said, we are busy at work now making an full-length movie on the credit crisis...

[Brian Defferding]

Excellent work Lineplot guys! I love them all!

[Justen]

Careful about running this in a public school, as politicized as schools are these days you're liable to face retribution for expressing anything politically unpopular.

[Ron]

Didn't President Clinton name ex-Senator Danforth to head up a commission on Social Security reform, and didn't they conclude that the problem was "politically insoluble"? I seem to recall that Clinton said the economy will just have to "grow" its way out of the problem, and he focused on health care costs instead. Given the fact that the elderly are likely to continue to vote at higher levels than younger people are, I can't see any outcome other than that the government will print the money it needs to pay the benefits. It seems pretty obvious that we are headed for an inflationary/interest rate spiral of staggering proportions in the next several decades.

[Ron]

For those who are interested, this piece is about as good as I have seen on the technicalities of reforming social security: http://www.urban.org/publications/310600.html

The bottom line is that a political compromise is required, but neither side has had sufficient incentives (so far) to give any ground.

[Grousefeather]

Social Security is a very good program for the old age security of American people. The biggest obstacle to the success of S.S. is the attitude of some people who just don't want it to work. In order to insure it's viability we need to redirect our focus from a war economy where a comparatively few war-mongers get rich, to a socially equitable and just economy that works for the economic good of all citizens. Where there's a will there's a way.

[Kendall]

If you think the problem of social security is one of attitude alone, you need to re-watch episode two and do the math on the number of people getting social security, vs. the number of people paying into it.

In what way will the system ever work if one persons social security is paid for by only two people? Because that's what is coming on us in not too many decades.

We need to just terminate it and grandfather in the existing people. Younger people have already written off ever seeing social security paid back to them, so I don't even think the blowback would be that great.

Does there need to be a safety net for older people? Sure. But right now it's not a net, it's a blanket that's covering everyone - and smothering us all.