In reference to The Day front page article, “Fair or unfair? Social Security provision affects many retirees,” by Owen Poole, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) of Social Security would be unfair if, and only if, SS benefits were directly proportional to SS earnings (and the FICA taxes paid by the employees and employers). But due to the dubious wisdom of our elected representatives and senators, SS earnings are "progressive," providing more (a higher percentage) to lower income workers.

And what do the public employees who contributed to SS from their summer, part-time, and end of career jobs look like? For SS purposes, they look like lower income workers when they definitely are not. The WEP and GPO were implemented to make the SS system fairer. The workers who did not contribute to SS in their main jobs want a windfall benefit designed for the poor. The craven politicians who support elimination of WEP and GPO are kowtowing to the public employee unions. Many public sector workers, like members of the military, pay into SS.

The real solution is to have all U.S. workers and employers pay SS taxes on all their wages and salaries.

P.J. Rovero

Niantic