Social Security: The Successful Government Program
The other day I heard some federal politician arguing that folks who don't think the government should be running the health care system because government makes a mess out of everything it touches should look at Social Security and Medicare as examples of "successful" government programs.
Time for a reality check.
(Thanks to Melinda).
Time for a reality check.
(Thanks to Melinda).
Posted by Citizen X at 3/15/2010 10:35 PM 
Categories: Economics,Government Incompetence
Tags: Social Security
Categories: Economics,Government Incompetence
Tags: Social Security
Social security was a good idea at the time it was created. It still is. Everything is not a government conspiracy to defraud the people. We have been warned for years this is no longer working and given the reasons why.
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Social security was not a good idea. Forcibly confiscating the wealth that an individual produces is immoral, even if the premise is that it is for that individual's own good. Besides, that paternalistic attitude is condescending and insulting--you are too stupid to take care of yourself so Daddy Government must take your money from you.
And yes, Social Security was a fraud. From the beginning, American's were told one thing when the program actually did something different.
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A bad idea, I truly don't believe that. Fraud, not sure, might have been. I'm not 100% pro-government by any means. I believe free money doled out by my government endorses immoral behavior by individuals to the detriment of this country. Patemalistic attitude,sad but let's face it, there are people here that do live foolishly, and will, unfortunately will be depending on those checks because they never got it, never cared to take control. They don't realize you will getting about a third of what you made while working. That attitude would surely never be mine's as Gutman and Genovese were both wrong and my ancestors did just fine even way back then. It may be Pop Gov's fault for a lot of what's wrong, but let us add to that a shout out to King Credit Credit Card Companies and the Prince Those Mortgage Loans and Princess Banks and definitely a bow and a curtsy to the Supreme Being -- Wallstreet.
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Maryette,
I see where you are coming from and I cannot argue that there are not irresponsible people out there. However, please consider a few points.
- What about those of us who are responsible? We are still forced to participate in a one-size-fits-fall program that has proved to be a failure. Social Security is not part of my retirement portfolio simply because I do not think the program will be solvent when I retire, but I still pay a significant tax towards its upkeep.
- The Fed's constant inflation of the money supply makes retirement planning extremely difficult and turns all of us into speculators. In a free market based on sound money, we would see price deflation. Savers would be rewarded. You could leave your money in the bank and it would actually grow. In our current fiat system, in order to keep up with price inflation, you must invest in riskier places, i.e. the stock market. The stock market crash of 1929 and ensuing depression can be traced back to the Fed's monetary inflation of the 1920s. Thus, Social Security was brought into existence by events the government (via the Fed) caused.
- Government grows not by seizing liberty but by assuming responsibility. Of course, folks won't be responsibly for their own lives, if the government "guarantees" that it will be. Unfortunately, we are ultimately responsible for our lives no matter what the government or any one else may say or do.
- Your argument assumes that somehow politicians and bureaucrats are more responsible than your average person; that while the average person will not save for retirement, the government will do so for him. As we have seen, this is not the case. Despite its air of expertise and officialdom, government is made up of folks just like you and me, fallible human beings. In fact, I would argue that since they are not personally responsible for their decisions (it's not their money), they tend to be less responsible than the rest of the population.
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Social Security, like so many other programs, was started with the best of intentions (supposedly) but got inflated along with everything else in the Gov’t.
I agree with X in the sense that the gov’t has no right to forcibly deduct wages from any citizen. Especially since there is no guarantee that that citizen will ever see one dime of the deducted funds. As it stands right now my generation will never see Social Security. In fact we’re working to balancing the growing debt that Social Security is creating.
What makes me uncomfortable about it is that the Gov’t borrowed money from Social Security to pay for other programs/debts. Essentially they robbed Peter to pay Paul. Now Peter wants his money back. Question is where is the Gov’t going to get the funds? Will they rob another program or will they just take their pound of flesh from John Q. Taxpayer? Taxes are already on the rise. How much higher will they go to cover the already staggering debt and how much longer can we continue before the Gov’t collapses in on itselt?
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Social entitlement programs have long been touted by the government as being compassionate, but if they were serious about helping people they wouldn't bankrupt this country with the cost of these programs. The government does NOT help people, it only serves its own interests. And how is that considered compassion?
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You go, Citizen X! It is immoral to confiscate someone else's wealth and/or property which is rightfully earned. And I did not read that this is a 'government conspiracy' or any accusation of such.
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This is a great subject where I see a major problem in selling a free-market ideology to the voting public. A good percentage of regular voters are 65 and up. How can you convince elderly voters how bad things like SS and Medicare are when they're only going to be around for 2 more decades tops? What do they care about the program's insolvency or the collapse of the US dollar if it doesn't happen until after they're long dead? You could go the whole "think of your grandkids" route but they're thinking about who is going to be paying tomorrow's bills.
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What did Batiast say? "The State is the great fiction by which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else."
The only thing is that I think the collapse of the dollar is going to happen sooner rather than later, especially if the Feds keep spending the way they are.
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Social security makes me want to bang my head against the wall. I'm 22 years old and have been paying into the pot since I started working at age 15. It's very frustrating to be forced to contribute to an unethical (and ineffective) program that more than likely won't even exist by the time I'm old enough to collect from it.
This country's monetary policy is so screwed up. Sometimes I feel like I'm watching a train wreck and have absolutely no control over how to stop it. On the bright side, when all this inflation catches up to us and the dollar finally falls, I should have an easier time paying off mt student loans (haha).
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