Help Middle Class Families

‘Own’ Their Retirement

To the Editor:

How about this: let’s make the necessary adjustments to maintain Social Security financially and to bring it into the 21st Century.

Then, let’s add a universal 401K program, one that middle-class people can invest in as soon as they start earning wages or generating income. A program that’s competitive with what the corporate sector can offer, instead of a poor relation to what elected officials and corporate executives get. A universal program that will support a culture of entrepreneurship, and help small businesspeople pursue our vision by helping us access the best talent available, instead of stacking the deck against us.

Might the Bush Administration embrace such an approach on its own? Don’t bet the family farm on it. Republican presidential campaigns make a Populist noise every four years, but it’s pure deception. The neoconservative agenda is explicitly aimed at creating and preserving an aristocracy of corporate wealth and power, and to extending that empire internationally. Meanwhile, the middle class is left to run on the rat-wheel of an every-man-for-himself economic system designed to keep us weak and compliant.

If President Bush really wanted an “ownership” society, his agenda would give middle class American families a reasonable hope of establishing the means to “own” our retirement. Instead, he uses fear and hype to con us into dismantling Social Security.

A simple, progressive, and universal 401K program — built on the bedrock of a safe and sound Social Security system — would enhance the initiative and industry of the middle-class professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners that have always been the creators of America’s wealth and the bulwark of our communities. That is the best approach, and now is the time to execute it.

We should demand that the Bush Administration adopt this position and vigorously push its Republican Congress to implement it.

Chris McArdle

Bennetts Bridge Road, Sandy Hook                    February 1, 2005