THEY DON'T MEAN US NO GOOD

Let’s get straight to the point: They don’t mean us no good.

Just in case you’re confused about who the hell “they” is, they is all them folks talking all crazy and out the side of their freaking necks about how Social Security needs to be slashed for the supposedly greater good of a balanced budget.

They is all them politicos and pundits out here claiming that we’d all be better off if Social Security was privatized and brought under the putative financial wizardry of Wall Street.

They is all them prognosticators predicting that the end of Social Security is right around the corner and that you need to get ready to take flight

They is those spinning the yarn that the reason you still in your mama’s crib got nothing to do with stagnant wages, nothing to do with de-unionization, nothing to with the dearth of jobs paying thriving wages, nothing to do with stifling student debt— but with “old geezers” taking you for a ride and who’ll end up leaving you a boatload of debt.

That’s who they is.

And they couldn’t care less about insuring you—or those you love— against the primary economic risks associated with trying to make it in a capitalist economy, including the risk of being harassed by the hounds of hunger and poverty once you retire.

No where is this clearer than in their utter disregard for the ways in which a dismantling of Social Security further decreases the ability of older and retired folks to age and live in dignity.

And, unsurprisingly, it’s aging and retired Black folk that’ll get hit particularly hard.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP

Thanks to some recent research, we get a clearer picture of the centrality of Social Security to the relative economic well-being of older Black households and, correlatively, to the importance of fighting to defend and expand the program.

Consider, for instance, the racial gap in wealth.

It’s not a secret — or at least it shouldn’t be— that the US political economy is characterized by a wide racial wealth divide.

This racial chasm in wealth is largely generated by this country’s historical legacy of racial and class oppression, with Black folk—as usual— catching a disproportionate share of the economic hell and insecurity that’s often associated with low-to-nonexistent levels of wealth or net worth. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, for instance, find that the median White held about $184,000 in wealth; in contrast, the median Black family’s wealth amounted to $23,000.

In another study, the economist Edward Wolff finds that the median Black household holds 14 cents for every dollar of wealth in the hands of the median White household.

This racial wealth ravine is both yawning and persistent. More pointedly, the racial gap in net worth is also present and cavernous amongst older folk, many of whom, presumably, are either retired or approaching that stage.

Just in case you’re nodding your head “no” or sucking your teeth in response to the claim that the racial divide in wealth remains present and large amongst older households, consider the following:

• Using a standard definition of net worth—the monetary value of all financial assets and housing wealth minus debts— Hou and Sazenbacher find that median wealth of White and Black households aged 51-56 is $176,900 and $24, 300. You can, of course, think of it this way: Aging or older Black households have less than 14 cents (13.7) for every dollar of wealth held by their aging White counterparts.

A report by the National Academy of Social Insurance provides additional documentation of the racial gap in wealth amongst older households. The report notes, among other things, that pensions and investment vehicles like Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) constitute one of the primary components of retirement wealth. Here’s one of their findings that’s particularly germane to this post:

• Looking at the median household between the ages of 47-64, the Report finds that the combined pension /IRA wealth of White and Black households clock in at $105,600 and $10,300, respectively. If it helps, run it like this: The median White household aged 47-64 has ten times as much financial wealth as their Black counterparts. Ten times!

Cut it however you want, the fact of the matter is that racial inequality in retirement wealth is off the chart.

Of those retired, or approaching retirement, Black folk, on average, have much less of a cushion than Whites to draw upon.

While it’s tough for millions of retired folks to age in place and live in dignity, it’s especially difficult for us. SOCIAL SECURITY AS A FORM OF WEALTH

All of this underscores the importance and urgency of defending and expanding Social Security.

Here’s what I mean: A growing number of researchers are emphasizing the need and significance of viewing Social Security as a form of wealth.

These scholars and activists observe that Social Security bears resemblance—and can be thought of— as an asset or annuity that generates a future stream of benefits or payments.

Without getting too deep in the calculations here, Social Security wealth (SSW) is “the present value of future benefits that an individual will receive less the present value of the future taxes they will pay.”

The long and short of it is that, given information about your earnings, your age, the probability of how long you’re likely to live , and interest rates, actuaries can easily estimate how much all your future Social Security payments are worth today—right now, in the present.

Now, if all of that is too wonky for your taste (although, to be honest, it could be a lot worse), try thinking about it this way:

Say, you’re 47 and your full retirement age is 67, at which point you plan on saying to your employer, “I’m done here, buddy!)” Further let’s say that your monthly Social Security benefits are scheduled to rock in at $26,500.

Oh, one more thing: Let’s say, actuarily speaking, you’re predicted to “cross over” at 80. That means you’ve got thirteen years of receiving those $26,500 monthly payments. The issue, then, is how much would you need in the bank right now to generate this stream of monthly earnings between the ages of 67 and 80.

That’s the present value of those future payments and, trust me, you’d need hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank right now—the present— to ensure getting those monthly payments on the regular.

It’s also a form of wealth.

So, what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that, once we take into account Social Security Wealth (SSW), the racial gap in retirement wealth is substantially narrowed.

Remember that study cited above by the National Academy of Social Insurance?

You know, the one that found the combined pensions/Individual Retirement Account wealth of older White and Black households to be $105,600 and $10, 300, respectively.

You know the one that shows Black households aged 47-64 holding a mere dime for every dollar of wealth held by their White counterparts.

Remember that?

Well, the authors go on to calculate the Social Security Wealth of those households at the time in which the study was conducted; they go, in short, to estimate the present value of the future stream of benefits that would come rolling in upon retirement.

And what they find is that the SSW of older White and Black households amounts to $223,416 and $107, 811, respectively. Thus, when we look at SSW, Black households between the ages of 47-64 have almost half as much wealth as similarly aged White households.

The gap, while still large, is substantially narrowed when one looks at the Social Security wealth of Black and White households.

All of which means, as authors put it, “that Social Security has a mitigating effect on the racial and ethnic inequality in the distribution of retirement wealth.”

Or, to put my own gloss on it:

Social Security does one hella job in narrowing the racial gulf in retirement wealth.

WRAPPING UP

Attacks on Social Security, then, is an attack on the amount of wealth in the hands of those most in need—Black households in—or nearing—retirement.

Getting rid of —or scaling back Social Security— would result in poor households having an even harder time living in dignity.

And this is especially true for poor Black households, the very households heavily dependent on them Social Security coins to make a go of it.

So, all those people talking about how you’d be better off just riding the ups and downs of the market, all those people yakking out the side of their necks about how Social Security benefits need to be trimmed, all those folks puking up scare stories about how some non-existent iron law of economics means that Social Security is inevitably going to go bust, all those doing their damnest to undermine support for Social Security— they couldn’t care less about us.

In their eyes, we’re “takers, not makers.”

They couldn’t care less that eradicating Social Security would increase the suffering awaiting aging households.

They couldn’t care less that eradicating Social Security would increase racial inequality in retirement wealth.

Ignore them.

Resist their siren calls.

Organize.

Fight for policies that allow all—including the retired— to live in dignity.

And, please, don’t forget this:

They don’t mean us no good.