The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1936-11-13
EDITORIAL


The Social Security Bill -
As this column has Iointed out before many of the
great of 1885 bascay unaffected by the out
of the election and will be among the great issues of
1887 and succeeding years One of those issues provided
by the social security bill passed by the last Congress- That
bill great deal of discussion the closing week
of the campaign with Republican spokesman denounc
ing in almost every particular and the Democrats defend
ing It.
It very possible that piece of major legislation
acted by the last Congress widely misunderstood 1t
is certain that proposals to amend the bill will appear in the
Congress and viii have the support of many members
of both parties number of mprejudiced Observers al
though they may endorse the principle of the bill and its
general purposes feel that it hastily drawn is unwor
able phases contains number of dangerous okers
Briefly the social security act as in effect works
follows:
During the present year every employer in the land
employing eight people has been subject to tax
equal per of his total payroll This tax will be
due payable January l. 1887 Purpose of the tax IS
to provide money for state unemployment insurance funds
The federal government will return 80 per cent of all money
collected under this tax to the states providing it, where
these states have unemployment insurance funds If they
lack such funds the Federal government will keep the
ey and administer the job itself
This tax win be increased by per cent next year. and
another one per in 1888 reaching maximum of per
cent Of all payrols to be paid entirely by employers
That is one phase Of the social security the
insurance.
The tax for this starts on January and will amount
to per cent of all payroIls Half of this will be paid by
employers and the other half byempIoyes maximum tax
able of individual is $50 per week. This tax will
rise slowly reach top of per cent in 1949 cent
of which will be paid by employers and cent by work
ers All of this money win be retained by the Federal gov
emen and viii be used to retire workers at the age OF 90
Thus, when the maximum is reached the social
ity viii total per cent all payros with certain ex
ceptions such agriculture and domestic labor
It is obvious that the tax viii bring in vast of
ney Estimates say that in 1887 when the total tax will
be per cent of payrols viii exceed $40 10000
OOO Yield for the following year will be close to $4OOOOO
OOO And when the top figure reached is anticipated
that $S0OO0OOOOO year will flow IN
And here is where one of the iokers appears Estimates
say that old age insurance which must under
law be retained by the Federal government and invest
ed in Government bonds will reach $47OOO0OOOOO by
1880 Today Federal debt is at atme high of $34
OO0OOOOO0 This debt, the U.S. News has pointed out,
be Inflated by another $13O00O00OO0 by 1880 just to
provide enough bonds for the investment of aid
iy money entirely dsmissng other holdings of government
bonds
Worst Joker of ALL according to some commentators
that under the law Congress Guild legally appropriate this
old age security money for other purposes In other words
morally but not legally bound to the money for the
pelsioning Of the elderly Al irresponsible Congress- con-
venng say in 1861 could spend the savings piled up and
the worker who been contributing company with his
employer part of his earnings for generation to assure
financially independent old age, would be out Of luck
Still another JOKER say some, is that if the sums in
volved were put policies providing pensions the
scale those provided by the annues sold by private in
srance companies the Individual would get much more by
the time he reached 65 This has been disputed by Others
and the whole matter has been befogged by argument
contradictory statistics that really knows what
the exact truth is
This discussion of the social security law could be
tnued for pages but it not intended to be exhaustive
book would be necessary if that were the aim seems
certain you win hear much debate concerning in the
next Congress- and there is good chance that the law will
be amended in a number of particulars