The Truth About Social Security

There are books I cannot stop talking about. Bad Blood is still one of those books. The Truth about Social Security is now another. Everything you think about social security is a right wing talking point. You think of it as part of the general federal budget, believe the money has already spent, that the program is going bankrupt, it wasn't intended to be your sole source of retirement income, that it's an entitlement, and (if you are under 50) will not be there for you when you retire.  All of those things are complete lies. I am most struck by how completely I have absorbed the right wing propaganda about this program.

The author, Nancy Altman, started her career as a tax lawyer after attending 2 Ivy League universities. She served as a legislative assistant to a Republican Senator in the 70's before the Republicans became crazy, doublespeak peddling devotees of Lenin. She moved on to work in the field of private pensions and then served as Alan Greenspan's assistant in the early 80's when he was chair of a bipartisan committee that developed amendments to the Social Security law. Since then she has worked in public service either directly or indirectly with the Social Security program.

When I tell people that everything they know about social security is not true, they do not believe me. But that is because everything they know, they've heard from the media. Unfortunately, it is hard to get good information on complex issues from the media these days. They seem to feel they have to tell you both sides which in this case is here are some lies and here is the truth, you decide which is which. And of course, you cannot.

The facts of the program are well documented and publicly available. The book is filled with speeches from founders of the program as well as congressional testimony from the time Congress was debating the program. Altman explains that the social security administration employs 40 actuaries. She breaks down actuarial terms and data which isn't great for bedtime reading but interesting earlier in the day.

Reading this book was reassuring -- what a great program! well designed! -- and terrifying -- these crazy people are close to fulfilling their dream of destroying this program.

Nothing to do but keep on fighting the good fight.

Sula

In honor of Toni Morrison, my book group chose the book Sula for the month of September. When I was a sophomore in college I read Beloved, and I understood none of it. My experience being required to read books seem to deplete my engagement with the book and turn it into figuring out what I needed to know about the book for a grade.

Maybe if I'd read Beloved under different circumstances, I may have understood more. But then I was reading the book around the time of the riots caused by the exoneration of the police when they severely beat Rodney King. I remember at the time thinking .. huh. well, I have never had that experience with the police. So, I didn't understand much.

Toni Morrison seems to paint scenes as she writes.. I've never read anything so deep, lyrical and mystical. Sula was her second book written in the early 70's. It is really, truly sad but somehow sort of hopeful in that one of the themes is strong women who can survive anything. I still probably didn't understand half of it.