Anti-Social Insecurity

If you haven’t taken a good look at the US government’s plan for social security, and you’re under 50, then you ought to. The White House website is a good place to start, but don’t get bogged down by the rhetoric before you get to read between the lines.

President Bush claims that he will listen to any good idea, save raising payroll taxes, to save the pension system. Well, if governments really want to look at what will happen to people when they’re old, I make a great case study of what to expect. First of all, I’m Australian, and we have been under the grip of Superannuation for almost as long as I have been working. However, back when Superannuation was introduced, the majority of workers could still work under relatively fair labour laws – that is, if you worked over a certain amount of hours a week, there were regulations which stipulated you had to be hired full-time, and all of the benefits that this ensured, such as sick days, holidays, and, something we know little of these days - job security.

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Pics: Old Social security posters (University of Texas)


This story was originally published for Smokin' Mirrors weekly political column in The Cheers Magazine, published every Friday at: http://www.thecheers.org

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