Political Risks of Social Insecurity

The financial press has reported that the United States ranks 19th worldwide in the retirement security, lagging behind Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, among other nations.  http://www.cnbc.com/id/100534205.  We're one step ahead of Britain, but well behind France and Germany.  The Scandinavian countries rank at the top, along with Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and tiny Luxembourg.  Even Japan, after more than two decades of economic malaise, ranks 15th, four steps higher than America.

This probably doesn't surprise many Americans, particularly those who are approaching or in retirement.  They have probably already viscerally sensed their comparative insecurity.  Herein lies great risk for politicians who would reduce America's social safety net.  Our net is modest compared to the protections offered by most of the industrialized world.  If it's cut, the pain--particularly for moderate and lower income Americans--could be pronounced.  It's one thing if your retirement benefits may not cover as many restaurant meals as you would like.  It's another if your cost of living increase is so paltry that you can't afford needed prescription medications.

That we have a fiscal imbalance is because our taxes are even lower on a comparative basis.  (See http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2009-11-25-oecd25_ST_N.htm.)  America could without enormous pain pay for its current social safety net without having to borrow.  We just don't want the taxes it would take to get there. 

Many politicians in Washington sound off about cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits.  This isn't just Republicans.  President Obama has been quick to offer reductions in Social Security.  One is to change the Social Security inflation adjustment from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) to the Personal Consumption Price Expenditures Index (PCE).  The effect of this change would to gradually erode the relative value of Social Security benefits, with the most elderly being the hardest hit over time.  Is is really a good thing to whack the most vulnerable, who may have exhausted their savings and be unable to work? 

Consciously or subconsciously, Americans know that their retirement benefits aren't great.  And many of them won't be happy with politicians who make their retirements bleaker.  If the President and the Republicans somehow reach a Grand Bargain to stabilize or even balance the budget, the political impact may surprise them.  As Republicans clumsily attempt to embrace diversity, their core of older, white Americans may abandon them if they lead the charge to cut retirement benefits.  President Obama, instead of being viewed as a latter day FDR, may end up appearing to fall into the mold of Herbert Hoover.  And the liberal left, annoyingly shrill as they can sometimes be, may end up inheriting the White House in 2016.