This post excerpted from Restoring America’s Middle Class Starts with Keeping Social Security’s Promise || Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

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Social Security is more important now than ever. Half of the workforce has no retirement plan other than Social Security. Traditional pensions have all but disappeared in the private sector. Americans have watched their assets evaporate, whether in 401(k) plans, savings or home equity. And no job is really secure. The majority of Americans have fewer safeguards if anything goes wrong.

The various proposals being floated to raise the retirement age, mean-test benefits, and cut benefits all serve to undermine Social Security’s universality – and in the long run, diminish popular support for the program.

Meanwhile, low tax rates have helped the richest Americans grow ever more wealthy while incomes of the middle class have stagnated and opportunities for younger Americans are constricting. It’s time for the wealthy to step up and pay their fair share – both for Social Security, by eliminating the cap on taxable earnings, and for all the benefits of American citizenry.

Social Security is there for the lucky and the unlucky, the childcare teacher and university professor, waitress and software designer, truck driver and surgeon, stay-at-home parent and working parent. It is there for all of us. But it will continue to be only if we fight to protect it.

Read the full brief: Restoring America’s Middle Class Starts with Keeping Social Security’s Promise »