November 05, 2010
I have no idea if Bill Gates has any land where he may have taken out flood insurance that was provided by the federal government, but let’s suppose that he did. If there was a flood, should he be able to collect on his insurance? After all, he certainly doesn’t need the money.
This probably seems like a nutty question. After all, he paid for the insurance, why shouldn’t he be able to collect on it like anyone else?
While that seems pretty straightforward, for some reason the same question apparently causes people great pain when applied to Social Security. Today Floyd Norris labors over the fact that rich people will collect Social Security benefits. Of course, they collect much less relative to what they paid in than poor people, so the structure of the program is progressive. But, they do get something back, so even Bill Gates and Warren Buffet will be able to pocket around $2,400 a month.
The reality is that the genuinely affluent get very little money from Social Security because they are few of these people. The discussion about cutting benefits for “affluent” retirees is aimed at people like school teachers and firefighters who may have had incomes in the range of $50,000 to $70,000. Such incomes don’t fit the usual definition of “affluent,” but folks use different logic when it comes to Social Security.
Comments