Labor & Employment Law

American Stories: Social Security Is A Success

By James Parks

Wealthy lawmakers and pundits who spout off about privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age, should talk to people like Jerry Conner and Dottie Gutenkauf.

Conner of Londonderry, N.H., and Gutenkauf, who lives in Plainfield, N J., are two of the seniors whose stories are featured on the American Stories website. Launched by the Alliance for Retired Americans, American Stories enables people of all ages to tell what Social Security has meant to them. Check out the seniors? stories here.  

Conner?s mother died when he was nine years old and his sister was seven. His father left home for work at 5:30 in the morning before the children woke up. His mother?s Social Security benefits paid for a baby sitter for the two children. Those benefits also helped replace the income his mother brought in from her job. That meant the mortgage was paid and there was food on the table, Conner says. (See video)

Social Security also has played a big role in Dottie Gutenkauf?s life. The benefits saved her family when she was a child and are keeping her out of poverty in her senior years. She says:

My father died at age 62 in 1947, when I was 13 years old. It was his Social Security that kept my mother and I from going under. While my mother worked as a nurse, her pay by itself was just not enough to cover our living expenses.

Now 75, Gutenkauf has paid into Social Security since her first full-time job at age 17. She says she and her 85-year-old husband depend on their Social Security benefits and his small pension to keep going. These two former college professors have small incomes from an IRA, but Gutenkauf says, ?Social Security is our mainstay!?

Recent polls show the public strongly supports Social Security despite calls by Republicans like Rep. John Boehner to raise the retirement age to 70 and cut Social Security and Medicare supposedly to lower the deficit. One reason Social Security is so popular: Social Security keeps 20 million Americans out of poverty, including some 13.2 million seniors and 1.1 million children.

In fact, Dottie Gutenkauf has a message for Boehner and all his kind:

A promise made should be a promise kept. Most older Americans depend on Social Security, and it and Medicare are great success stories. They should not be tampered with!

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on August 19, 2010 (boomark / email).