Warren would also broaden what is classified as work under Social Security. She would include people who exit the workforce to care for a family member by crediting their average lifetime earnings with that time. Americans who provide 80 hours a month of unpaid care to a child under 6, a dependent with a disability or an elderly relative would see that reflected in their Social Security earnings.
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“Social Security benefits track with your income during your working years,” Warren wrote. “That means pay disparities and wrongheaded notions that value salaried work over time spent raising children or caring for elderly relatives carry forward once you retire. That needs to change.”
That would make a modest shift to the calculus about the value of work vs. family. I think that's a very good idea.
I like how she’s shifting it more in the entitlement direction and less in the insurance direction. What I mean by that is she’s loosening the link between what is received and what is paid in.
-------------------------------- If you think looting is bad wait until I tell you about civil forfeiture.
Posts: 33811 | Location: On the Hudson | Registered: 20 April 2005
Originally posted by jon-nyc: I like how she’s shifting it more in the entitlement direction and less in the insurance direction. What I mean by that is she’s loosening the link between what is received and what is paid in.
In some sense, it's a small echo of the idea that we give everyone enough to live on.
If we discount the possibility of inflation and the need to chase it (and, of course, we shouldn't), it really would move the country in a more humane direction.
