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All of the current distress over government control over American health care has brought up the subject of entitlements in general. Prior to FDR we had only a few. During his term Social Security was very controversial. Now it is expected as an entitlement and not controversial at all. We simply MUST have it. It no longer seems to matter that it was poorly drawn and funded. Today, Social Security is essentially broke. The current government is expected to fix it. There is nobody considering just doing away with it.
I have a question. From 1776 forward it was expected that a wage earner would put aside a tithe to the church and a bit for his old age. It sounded good but it did not work very well. Way too many people ended their work days with no savings for their non-working old age. The government said they could step in and fix the problem. Everyone paid taxes to the government and the government could subtract their salaries and expenses and then pay back an appropriate amount of the taxed money to the old timers. Eureka! They solved the old folks problem and in a sense purchased their votes. A success all round.
As a side effect of their magnanimous give away to the old voters, the government needed more people so they could manage the program. Government grew and grew. As more and more people came of retirement age, Social Secuity expanded to provide everyone the expected riches. Of course it took more beaurocrats to administer the program, so government employment increased some more. Question: What happened to the idea that a working person should put aside a bit for his old age? Gone with the winter wind. Blown to sea. Now everyone was entitled.
I don't want to even think about why the American worker should ever expect the to have his old age finances paid for by some young kid just hired yesterday. This is what has happened to Social Security. Despite the amount of money an individual worker has paid into the program his or her entire working life, all of it is gone. Spent by the government on something else. The only way the government's Social Security entitlement can be paid to those qualified and expecting it, is to tax the new wage earner enough to pay what has been promised. Does this make sense?
Some folks believe that it does. They say that the burden doesn't fall on the new wage earner because all the government has to do is to print more money. Politicians have been doing this for years to pay for their spending of money they didn't have. They have treated our national treasury as if it was a limitless credit card. Certainly, someone is going to come along and say "whoa, you can't do that". But unfortunately, so far no one has done that, and the national debt has increased so much that it almost can't be measured and more. Trillions and trillions are difficult to grasp.
There are two major causes of America's national debt. The first is military spending to support real or possible wars. The second is the public's growing illusion that the government can do a better job of managing the national treasury than private, profit making, free market enterprises.
There is a third. Entitlements. Getting someone else to pay your bills. Getting the entire taxed society to pay for your old age, healthcare, and etc., as well as life insurance, home insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, and more.
More later . . .
Comments
In the days before Social Security, old people went to poor houses or lived with their family-- assuming family would take them in. Their living conditions were often not very good but if you don't care about that as an argument, how about that Social Security has been money that continually was out there as a way to keep our economy going through bad economic times.
When Reagan raised SS taxes to the equivalent of many state taxes, the argument was that it would be a trust fund which the government could use when someday the SS tax wasn't enough to cover current retirees. That money got used to cover other programs. You have a lot of leaders, who call themselves conservatives, but who put this entire war with Iraq on the cuff. No taxes, all borrowed and the end result is now the right is going after the elders and their families for something that wasn't their fault.
One thing about how many political factions work is they have to have an enemy to get what they want passed. We are seeing this war on the elders through SS and Medicare as just one part of what is being done. Education has been hit also. My personal belief is that it is a war on the middle class. If we aren't careful, it won't exist and you won't have a SS tax, but you also won't have elders able to live with dignity. Not a big deal to some.
There are some simple fixes for SS but unless the government stops taking the excess, they will all be used to pay for government programs (like the enlarged Afghan war) while hiding their true cost from the American people. It's how they have operated. What would change it?
Incidentally, the average SS check runs about $850 or so. It's amazing that anyone begrudges that to people who mostly worked hard their whole lives...
Keep the grey matter churning. It's an education for us brain challenged people to read.
Dixon
It really irks me that the taxes were raised so much to supposedly create that trust fund and they just used it-- both parties. They act as though it's not theft but it clearly has been and because the ones doing it are the ones who could investigate it, they get away with it.
My folks were hard working people and when they retired, SS was about all they figured they would have. Dad had a small pension for years as a Teamster but not a high income member; so not much and Mom only got a small portion of that after he died. My husband's folks were better off as both had government pensions in addition to SS but still they none had much in their senior years. My folks put a mobile home on our farm and that helped them economically but it's just hard to be old and today more than ever with the high cost of insurance.