Editorials / Opinion

DAVID MILLER / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Corrected version

Writers like John F. Wasik get it all wrong because they never take into account the total amount accrued from Social Security [“Social Security at 62? Let’s run the numbers,” Business/Technology, July 26].  For practical people like me, how much I get out of the system and the certainty of getting it is more important than a temporary comparison at a future point of time.

Let’s look at Wasik’s numbers. He says that if you take Social Security at 62, you may only get $1,000 a month, while at 70, that would be $1,320, a one-third increase in value.

But if you take Social Security at 62, over the next eight years, you would have

What guest columnist Paul Taylor talks about was predicted decades ago [“Ease the burden of aging baby boomers on millennials,” Opinion, May 3]. The chickens have come home to roost and the millennials understand this quite well. Where this column gets laughable is the proposition that our current crop of political leaders can “rediscover…

Lurking within the current debate about Proposition 1 for Metro and roads funding is a significant irony [“King County Metro Transit still has work to do; vote no on Prop. 1,” Opinion, April 7]. Backers of Proposition 1 are right that seniors rely on the bus for most transportation around Seattle. While we, my…

The money comes from profit and retained earnings

Apparently columnist Paul Krugman doesn’t understand where the money comes from to support Social Security [“Expanding Social Security for a better retirement,” Opinion, Nov. 24].

Profit and retained earnings of America’s enterprises are the source of capital investments for property and machinery, the hiring of new employees, the payment of dividends, and interest to stockholders and bond holders, and the payment of taxes.

Immigrant is lucky not to have Social Security number I nearly fell off my seat upon reading Dakshina Thekkekalathil’s guest column. [“Trapped as the spouse of an H-1B visa worker,” Opinion, July 15.] Among her notions that floored me, an American citizen, is her belief that her worth and legal identity depended on having a Social…

Disabilities are not always obvious Many disabilities are not visible and the disabled do not have to be wheelchair bound to prevent them from working [“Free America’s ‘work beasts’ from disability scammers,” Opinion, April 26. It’s peevish to chastise the disabled Froma Harrop surmises are able to work, refuse minimal-wage jobs and prefer to “scam” the government…

Not everyone takes advantage of the system I was appalled by Froma Harrop’s column [“Free America’s ‘work beasts’ from disability scammers,” Opinion, April 26]. Let us be clear: This was nothing more than a naked attack on the safety net that Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) can provide. It’s an old tactic — take a small truth…

Depression is misunderstood Froma Harrop does not understand the challenge of dealing with severe depression [“Free America’s ‘work beasts’ from disability scammers,” Opinion, April 26]. The mental incapacity of depression is real and sometimes leads to suicide. True depression is not merely a “low mood”; it comes with an inability to bounce back to normalcy. Harrop ridicules…

Disabled workers deserve more respect As a Renton attorney who has practiced Social Security Disability law in the Seattle-Tacoma area for 25 years, I was infuriated that The Seattle Times published this erroneous attack on our nation’s social-safety net [“Free America’s ‘work beasts’ from disability scammers,” Opinion, April 26]. Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries are workers…

Solutions for ‘unsustainable’ programs? The Seattle Times editorial said that we must consider cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security because the aging of the population has made these programs unsustainable [“Avoid sequester gimmick,” Opinion, Feb. 22]. My question is: And what? We just let them die? Let them starve and turn them away from our…