Logan's Pension

Since the recession has begun, Congress has been extending unemployment benefits again and again.

Becoming unemployed in your late fifties is always hard, and especially so during difficult economic times such as these.

The proposal here is to transfer such unemployed from the unemployment system to the Social Security system.

While much is made of the fact that Social Security is going broke, doing this transfer will not materially impact that situation, since those in their late fifties are quite likely to start getting benefits within 5 years anyway, and get them for many years. Further, since unemployment benefits keep getting extended, it's a "zero sum game" in terms of immediate cash outlay.

Whereas a real benefit can be realized by the entire workforce if these same people actually stopped competing for work.

In fact, given the times, perhaps some consideration should be given to federal volunteer early retirement -- just as is sometimes done by corporations to turn over personnel and reduce payroll costs due to the entry of more entry level personnel.