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Show Benefits of Social Security Could Be Extended to Farm Owners and Their EmployeeOfficiaJsJay V All Difficulties of Administration Can Be Smoothed Out i ! Wages today are high, and jobs plentiful, and there is a ready market for all farm produce and manufactured goods. Most people probably realize, however, that the present prosperity is a result of the war, and that a downturn down-turn is almost certain to come with peace. There may be no depression, at least not for several years, but the present very high level of activity is not likely to be maintained. But in any case, there comes a time in everyone's life when he has to slow down. Whatever stage the business cycle is in, those who are unable to work get no income. ; Everyone who has to make his own j living must be somewhat concerned about the future. ' A very large group of wage and salary earners have found a partial j answer to these troublesome ques-I ques-I tions. They are the workers in private pri-vate industry and commerce, those in so-called "covered" employment, to whom the old-age and survivors insurance program of the Social Security act applies. These workers are building up rights to monthly insurance payments when they grow old and retire, and for their families, fami-lies, when death comes to the breadwinner. bread-winner. Others, not so fortunate, look upon the group that has social insurance insur-ance protection somewhat enviously. The Social Security board receives many letters from the self-employed j professional people, small busi- ! l'V A 1 i , - & vV v j -I Young and strong, this Maryland farmer shouldn't need retirement benefit payments for many years unless sickness or an accident should incapacitate him. But the time will come when he will be too old to work. During his good years, he should have a chance to accumulate accu-mulate a retirement fund through Social Security. His family too, should be protected under the survivor's sur-vivor's benefit provisions. Under present provisions, however, the farm family is excluded from the system. ness men, gas station operators, restaurant keepers, operators of cleaning and pressing shops, of beauty parlors, and so on, wanting to know why they can't get old-age protection. They pay premiums for their employees' insurance, but themselves cannot build up rights to benefits. "Why this discrimination?" discrimina-tion?" they ask. "We have no more security than our employees." Few From Farmers. Very seldom among these letters from the self-employed is there one from a farmer. Yet farmers have fully as much reason to seek social insurance protection as others of the self-employed. The notion that farmers are 'an independent and self-sustaining group is no longer true. It is a hangover from earlier times, when most farms were self-sufficient. self-sufficient. Today 'farmers are much more vulnerable. They have to buy more and sell more; operating costs are higher, and falling prices often mean serious losses. Then too, sections differ as to agricultural prosperity. North and south, west and middle-west are widely unlike, while in each there are plenty of spots that present a quite different picture from the rest. In 1939, the last year before the "war boom," nearly one-half of the farm operators in the country had a gross annual money income yield (allowing for food consumed by the farm family) of less than $600; two-thirds two-thirds had less than $1,000, and 89 per cent had under $2,500. It is difficult for farm owners to save much out of these small cash incomes. Even a farmer with an average net income of $2,000 a year finds it hard to put much aside for old age or misfortune. The constant demands for maintenance of fertility, fer-tility, repairs, buying machinery and livestock, and so on, all require re-quire cash, and there is often little left at the year's end to build up a retirement fund. Often, when the farm operator has to quit work, his family is in difficult straits, and may have to depend on public aid or charity. The tenant farmer and the farm laborer generally are in worse circumstances cir-cumstances than the man who owns his land, once they have to quit working. With little or no savings, the tenant and the farm hand who cannot earn anything are soon hard up indeed. They and their families suffer humiliation and want. War Changes Things. The war, of course, has made a great difference in the farmers' situation. situ-ation. The. incomes of many are double, in some cases treble, what they were before. But the war and perhaps our present prosperity is temporary. Farm people were left out of the social insurance program not be-. cause they were thought to be already al-ready secure. The reason for excluding ex-cluding them was that in 1935 the program was new and the administrative adminis-trative hurdles looked very high. But now the Social Security board is convinced that old-age and survivors sur-vivors insurance can be administered adminis-tered for farm people simply, at low cost, and without being unduly troublesome to them. What would it mean to farm operators and farm hands to have this insurance? It would mean the same protection it means already to those who are under the system. A couple of examples will illustrate the protection old-age and survivors insurance offers. Back in 1936, when Harry J. was nearly 60, he got himself a job with a construction company. After eight years, he wanted to stop working and retire to his small place in the country. He hadn't felt he could do so, however, because he wasn't sure he could earn a living from farming farm-ing his few acres. Upon inquiry he found that his monthly retirement payment would be about $27, since he had earned an average of $100 a month. His wife, who was also past 65, would get half that much; so that would make the family income over $40 every month, sufficient for their needs. Widow Got $79 a Month. Mr. C. was a newspaper linotype machine operator and had always earned high wages. He hoped to give all five children a good education. The two elder ones were attending the university. Suddenly Mr. C. got pneumonia and died within a week. The widow was left with three children still at school and no income in-come save what Mary and Jean could earn by leaving school and taking jobs. She went to the Social Security field office, thinking that perhaps there would be a small lump sum going to her, probably be no more than a couple of hundred dollars. She was amazed to learn that she was entitled to monthly payments for. herself and the three younger children! She received I". " v- - , " i A midwestern farmer smiles with satisfaction as he reads the figures en a check received for his produce. Agricultural income is now two to three times the 1939 level, but this happy situation won't last, economists econo-mists warn. Unless this middle-aged middle-aged man is fortunate, however, his savings will dwindle away, and he will face old age without security. about $79 a month under the'old-age and survivors insurance program! Mrs. C. is one of 765,000 persons-workers persons-workers past 65, their aged wives, widows, and children and dependent depend-ent parents who today are receiving receiv-ing monthly payments on account of old-age and survivors insurance. To date the system has paid out nearly half a billion dollars. The mechanics of old-age and survivors sur-vivors insurance are simple. Every pay day every worker in a covered job pays, under present rates, 1 per cent of his wages as a premium on his old-age and survivors insurance. This is deducted from his pay by his employer, who pays an equal sum. Four times a year the employer em-ployer sends both contributions in Many men are able to work even in old age, like this sturdy Florida farmer. He knows, nevertheless, that he will have to quit In a few years, or maybe much sooner. If he could anticipate a regular flow of Social Security checks he could face the future with much less concern. to the federal government. Together with the money he sends a report of the amount of wages paid the worker, to be duly entered in his social security account in Baltimore, Balti-more, Md. On the basis of these wage records, the insurance benefits bene-fits are figured. Farmers Could be Protected. Could the system be applied to farm people? Farmers are scattered over a very wide area. Could the premiums be coDected without the costs of administration mounting unduly un-duly high, considering the small amounts paid in? And how would farmers figure out what their premiums pre-miums ought to be, seeing that lots of them don't keep any books? The Social Security board is confident con-fident that the extension of the old-age old-age and survivors insurance system to farm people is how feasible. Ways have been devised to overcome the difficulties. As a basis for determining farmers' farm-ers' social insurance premiums, the reports they are already making to the government for income tax and other purposes can be used. For the farmer who is not required to file income tax returns, would figure his income on the basis of the estimated "market value of his services." In doing this he could guide himself by the wages received by his highest paid farm hand. If he employs no labor, the monthly wage rate for farm labor in his locality would serve. Farmers could pay their premiums pre-miums at times most convenient for themselves. Some might find it convenient con-venient to pay a lump sum annually, and others might prefer to pay in four annual quarterly installments. Low-income farmers could pay their premiums in social insurance stamps if they chose. They would buy these currently and put them in a social security stamp book which could be turned in from time to time as payment toward their premiums. Collections Through Stamps. For farm help, the stamp method might be best, the board thinks. The farmer could buy social insurance stamps from any post office or rural letter carrier, and insert them in the stamp books furnished him by his workers when he paid their wages. Half the cost of the stamps would be deducted from the worker's work-er's wages as his social security premium. pre-mium. When the worker's book was full, or at the end of its period of validity, he would bring or mail it to any office of the board so that it could be added to his record. With the stamp system the "small" farmer would find it unnecessary unnec-essary to keep books or file reports about the wages of his paid help. On the large farm the stamp method could be used for temporary or casual workers not carried on the regular pay roll. Wages paid in the form of room and board and the like might be included in the worker's work-er's total wage, and the value set on them could be based on data gathered and published from time to time by the department of agriculture. agri-culture. Farm people have every claim to be included under the old-age and survivors insurance program. Their claim is all the stronger because many of them are already partly under the system. In the wintertime, or in other off-seasons for farm" work, many farm people work in industry and pay premiums on social so-cial insurance. In a Ufetime, their payments amount to substantial sums. And yet very few people ever get benefits because they don't work in covered employment long enough or often enough to qualify for the monthly payments. The inclusion oj farm people under the program would at once both rectify the in justice to these workers and plug a big gap in the social security program. J |
