Welcome to our annual NorthBay biz Harvest Fair/Wine issue. This issue, at 156 pages, is the biggest magazine we’ve published this year. That doesn’t come as too big a surprise, since this special Wine issue has long been a reader and advertiser favorite. For many years, NorthBay biz has been the official print publication of the long-established and highly successful Sonoma County Harvest Fair. Inside this issue, you’ll find the 2007 Harvest Fair schedule and guide of events to help you navigate your way around the fun.
This year, as usual, the special Wine issue is filled with facts, figures and fancy. The cover story, “A Barrel of Fun,” is a romp through custom crush facilities that gives amateur winemakers a chance to create their own custom vintage. Altogether, there are 11 stories in this bonus issue that explore the lighter and more serious side of growing grapes and making world-class wines in Napa and Sonoma counties. In addition to all the stories about the wine industry, you’ll find all our regular and new features inside including, “Pairing Pros,” “VineWise” and one of our newest columns, “Napa Insider.” So, sit back, relax, pour yourself a glass of fine Napa or Sonoma county wine and enjoy this very special issue of NorthBay biz. And then, above all, go out and enjoy the Fair.
There are a lot of “hot” topics percolating out there that will have a profound impact on our lives, any one of which could easily command the rest of the space in this column for comment—immigration, national healthcare, affordable housing, the war on terror, our economy, global warming and the upcoming presidential elections—the results of which many foresee as a pivotal point in our history. However, these complex issues will have to wait for another time. This month I want to return to a topic I’ve discussed before—the impending implosion of the Social Security system.
Hate to admit this at times, but alas; I’m part of the baby boomer generation. Sure, we’ve made our share of positive contributions to society at large, but overall, boomers are a hedonistic bunch, unable to get over our own sense of self-importance and believing the world always revolves around us. Well, maybe the time has come that these self-aggrandizing delusions are about to come true—if only in a perverse way.
The baby boomers are getting ready to retire. And that means a demographic day of reckoning is near. In 1960, there were approximately nine workers for every Social Security recipient and, as you would expect, the financial snapshot of the Social Security program revealed glowing health. The same picture taken today, however, shows just three workers per beneficiary. By 2025, there will be just over two workers per recipient.
There is some good news: while it’s true the number of people older than age 65 has doubled in our nation since 1960, our economy has quadrupled. However, given all the medical advances, the number of people living past age 85 is also projected to rise dramatically—and they will, of course, continue to collect their Social Security checks. When you add it all up—more retirees, less workers, people living longer; the system has only one place to go—into default. Congress, over time, has applied some bandages to this problem. It’s delayed retirement age, raised the tax rate and expanded the tax base. But none of this is enough to withstand the coming confluence of demographic circumstance. In 1960, the percent of the federal budget dedicated to Social Security/Medicare spending was 13 percent. In 2002, it had grown to 33 percent! And it’s on the rise.
We can’t continue to direct larger and larger chunks of our economy into a government-run entitlement system. Continuing to confiscate and redistribute all this financial might, without letting this money work in a free market economy, could be the root of the problem. Clearly, the solution isn’t more of the same—raising the tax rate, raising the tax cap, cutting benefits, raising the retirement age, etc. If we want to save Social Security, it needs to be ripped out by its 1935 roots and replanted with basic structural reform. It needs to be modernized and strengthened. It needs a radical transformation if it’s to survive.
When politicians deny there’s a problem with Social Security, or says there’s no rush to fix the system, it’s an egregious breech of their pledge to serve in the people’s best interest. There’s no denying the reality of the number of boomers about to become eligible for benefits. The current system can’t possibly sustain this onslaught of numbers. It’s clear the time is now to transform this relic from the depression years into the wealth-producing dynamo it can become with modern financial restructuring. How much longer can we continue to fuel a program that produces such a dismal investment return and doesn’t begin to tap its potential earning power? The dollars invested in Social Security should be growing exponentially, into real, substantial wealth that every American alive today, and their heirs, can share. As Pogo used to say, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” It’s time for reform—or true financial disaster looms.
That’s it for now. Enjoy this month’s magazine.
