I’m not impressed with either of the presidential candidates’ discussion of and/or plans for fixing the pending Social Security shortfall. During the presidential debates in New Hampshire on Jan. 5, 2008, Barack Obama again suggested significantly raising the income cap, but that approach is neither innovative nor new.

I submit that we should consider a different approach: change the criteria or formula with regard to the amount of Social Security payments made to individuals upon their retirement (or receiving of disability) to more appropriately reflect the amount of their total lifetime income that was subject to the Social Security (FICA) tax.

On the official Social Security Administration’s website at www.ssa.gov, there is a benefits calculator that estimates a person’s potential benefit amount using different retirement dates and levels of future earnings.

Using the SSA website’s Quick Calculator, I calculated the monthly benefit amount for two individuals, each of whom was born on the same date of 6/15/50, and each of whom plans to retire at age 68 in June of 2018. As a part of the calculation(s), I indicated that one of individuals earned $40,000 in 2007, and that the other individual earned $1,000,000 in 2007. For both individuals, I selected the option to see their projected benefit amounts in inflated (future) dollars. The results were as follows:

Current earnings: $40,000.00 - Your estimated monthly benefit amount, beginning at age 68 in 2018, is $2,039.00.

Current earnings: $1,000,000.00 - Your estimated monthly benefit amount, beginning at age 68 in 2018, is $3,826.00. (Note: For your benefit calculation, we limited your earnings to the $102,000.00 taxable maximum for 2008.)

Based on the calculation results, a person who earns tens of millions of dollars in his lifetime can expect to receive 88% more in monthly Social Security retirement benefits than a person who just barely earns $1,000,000 in his lifetime. And that same multi-millionaire can expect to receive 252% more in monthly Social Security retirement benefits than a person who earns just the federal minimum wage during his lifetime! Now why would a retiree with more than enough income and resources to support an affluent lifestyle need to receive $46000 a year from Social Security? Surely such an individual would not even blink if say, half of those Social Security benefits were re-directed to those persons who depend upon their monthly benefits to pay the rent, put food on the table and cover medical costs! After all, wasn't Social Security created as a safety net for the poorest of American Society?

I would love to hear what each of the presidential candidates has to say about that!