| zorg1000 said: What exactly do you mean by the left tries to fix with social security and the middle class shouldn’t need social security? I guess I don’t really know what your definition of social security is in the instance, like do you consider expanding access to health care or subsidizing child care or increasing the minimum wage or strengthening unions as forms of social security or do you mean something more like a universal basic income where everybody gets direct cash payments? |
I live in Canada where healthcare is free, saves so much on unnecessary paperwork. I don't consider that social security, just like primary education it's a basic necessity for modern societies.
Beyond that the middle class should be able to make do without subsidized housing or other assistance without going into debt just to make ends meet. Raising the minimum wage is part of that and more affordable housing is needed.
For the US, instead of spending on subsidizing healthcare, the focus should equally be on reducing the costs. Private healthcare is a great scheme to make healthcare more expensive :/ A universal basic income is just another scheme to pump more money to the 1%. That's where it ends up (spending that money on overpriced everything) and it comes from taxes that the 1% can avoid.
What I'm trying to say is, while the left has good intentions with all kinds of subsidies, they generally backfire as companies don't see a reason to pay their employees better. Capitalism leaves no margins, and thanks to subsidizing housing / mortgages, prices have only gone up. And since people now rely on their house for retirement through reverse mortgages, the problem can't even be solved anymore.
That's what we're dealing with here
https://cupe.ca/retirement-security-key-solving-housing-crisis
Canada has two public pension programs, the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. Together, they do not pay retirees enough money to keep them from falling into poverty. Some workers have a workplace pension plan that adds to their retirement income. But more than 60% of people in Canada do not.
For a long time, the federal government has left that majority to fend for themselves. One way people do that is by buying a house and counting on its value to going up over time. Housing is treated like an investment rather than a basic right. And around 40% of Canadian households are counting on that investment growing to fund their retirements.
Anyway giving people more money doesn't work, you will have to keep giving them more and more money until they die. The problem is jobs don't pay enough anymore. If the middle class earns more money, more taxes come in as well paying for social programs. Giving people more money, no reason to raise wages, less taxes come in (with inflation).
Minimum wage needs to go up, maximum wage should be introduced but first the entire tax system needs to be overhauled. It's a complicated mess full of loopholes for the wealthy to exploit.
Nothing new, 2015
https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/
