Retirement (age 65+)
Engine: Engine 3: Social Stack
Framing
Social Security 2.0 is the first major upgrade to Social Security since the 1935 Act. It rebalances benefits for longer retirements without cutting lifetime value for any income quintile, adds comprehensive Distributed Healthcare retiree healthcare, and dissolves the separate Trust Fund architecture into the General Fund over a 5-year transition.
The stretched bend point structure
Bend point 1: 90% (AIME ≤ $1,174) — unchanged
Bend point 2: 28% (AIME $1,174–$3,500) — from 32%
Bend point 3: 22% (AIME $3,500–$7,078) — from 32%
Bend point 4: 10% (AIME $7,078–$10,000) — new tier
Bend point 5: 5% (AIME above $10,000) — from 15%
The bend point structure stretches benefits across longer retirements without cutting the lifetime benefit for any retiree. Monthly cash is modestly lower at the top; additional years of life preserve the total. Distributed Healthcare coverage (dental, vision, hearing, mental health — none covered by Medicare) is added on top, producing higher total retirement value across every income quintile.
Dignity Floor
Amount: $1,150/month
Eligibility: 30 years of contribution history
Affected retirees: approximately 5.5 million
Annual cost: approximately $13 billion (~0.05% of GDP)
Why this provision exists. Three reinforcing rationales — moral commitment, system stabilization, and retroactive equity for an externality the country has long failed to price. Each stands on its own; together they describe the most defensible $13 billion in the Accord.
The unpaid caregiving externality. The 5.5 million retirees the Dignity Floor serves are disproportionately women who spent their working years as caregivers during decades when caregiving wasn't compensated and didn't accrue Social Security credits. They raised the country's children, cared for aging parents, and supported ill spouses. The economic benefit of that labor was captured by the broader economy and by employers who didn't bear childcare costs; the cost was borne by the caregivers themselves, who entered old age with sharply reduced Social Security benefits as a direct consequence. This is the unpaid caregiving externality. Like the carbon externality, it represents value extracted by one party while costs were absorbed by another. Like other externalities the Accord prices, it requires a corrective instrument. Unlike forward-looking externalities (carbon, methane, ultra-processed food), this one operated for decades before being recognized — the harm has already accumulated and the affected population is identifiable and aging. The Accord addresses caregiving prospectively through Universal Child Allowance, Skills Wallet, and family-policy reforms that make modern caregiving compensable. For the women now in their 70s and 80s, no prospective fix can restore the working years already lived. The only available remedy is retroactive equity — paying now for value extracted earlier without compensation. The Dignity Floor is that remedy.
Moral commitment. A country that extracts value from its citizens' unpaid labor and then permits those citizens to fall into destitution in old age has surrendered something more valuable than its budget. The Accord's moral foundation requires that elders who built the country's human capital not retire into poverty. This commitment is not contingent on whether the math closes in a 10-year window. It exists because the country's identity as a society capable of honoring its obligations across generations depends on it.
System stabilization. Universal-benefit floors prevent destitution-driven instability. They also serve a less-obvious function: signaling that the Accord honors its commitments even to populations who cannot politically reward the response. A working-age caregiver in 2030 who watches the country pay for the unpaid caregiving externality of a previous generation has reason to believe the Accord's promises about Universal Child Allowance, Skills Wallet, and family policy will be honored when she reaches retirement. The Dignity Floor is the proof that makes the rest of the architecture's promises credible.
Distributed Healthcare retiree integration
Every retiree receives Distributed Healthcare coverage that includes: medical (as Medicare provides today, at Distributed Healthcare cost levels), dental, vision, hearing, mental health, and long-term care. The four services Medicare has never covered — dental, vision, hearing, mental health — are added for every retiree.
Trust Fund dissolution
The Social Security Trust Fund draws down on the CBO LTBO 2025 schedule (combined OASDI exhausts 2034). The Accord does not change that schedule — it draws from the Trust by the same amount on the same timeline. During drawdown, benefit payments flow from the existing Trust reserves. After exhaustion the Trust is permanently closed, and SS 2.0 benefits flow directly from the General Fund. The Accord prevents the ~23% post-exhaustion benefit cut FICA-alone would force; the General Fund fills the gap so retirees see no reduction. The uncapped 28% payroll tax flows undifferentiated to the General Fund — no SS carve-out.
Phase-in
Capacity-bounded phase-in over Years 1-7. Distributed Healthcare retiree benefits ramp up as provider capacity allows (vision first, then dental, hearing, mental health). Bend point rebalance begins Year 3 after two years of healthcare value delivery.