Under Social Security, lower and middle class individuals are forced to pay a significant portion of their gross income, around 12%, for the alleged purpose of securing their retirement. That money is not saved or invested, but transferred directly to the program’s current beneficiaries with the “promise” that when current taxpayers get old, the income of future taxpayers will be transferred to them. Since this scheme creates no wealth, any benefits one person receives in excess of his payments necessarily come at the expense of others.
Under Social Security, every aspect of the government’s “promise” to provide financial security is at the mercy of political whim. The government can change how much of an individual’s money it takes. For example, Social Security has increased the payroll tax 17 times since 1935.
* The government can spend Social Security money on anything it wants.
* The government can change when and if it chooses to pay Social Security benefits and how much they consist of.
“The system is broken, and promises are being made that Social Security cannot keep,” former President George W. Bush said in a radio address.
Social Security trustees say the program’s financial problems will grow as baby boomers retire. The program will pay out more in benefits than it collects in revenue in 2018, they say. By 2042, they say, the trust fund will be exhausted, and tax income will be sufficient to pay only 73 percent of scheduled benefits.
Social Security is “untouchable” to reform because of the idea of “universal coverage“, the idea that, as a New York Times editorial preached, “all old people must have the dignity of financial security”, regardless of how irresponsibly they have acted. On this premise, since some would not save adequately on their own, everyone must be forced into some sort of “guaranteed” collective plan, no matter how irrational.
Sound familiar?
- Universal coverage
- all people must have the dignity of …
- guaranteed collective plan
- no responsibility of the individual
Yep, the Obama/Reid/Pelosi socialized medicine debacle that will soon become the law of the land, just like Social Security. And just like Social Security this is what both you, and your children, and your grandchildren have to look forward to:
- The government can spend health insurance taxes on anything it wants.
- The government can change when and if it chooses to pay health insurance benefits and how much they consist of.
- Any health care benefits one person receives in excess of his payments necessarily come at the financial expense of others.
- Lower and middle class individuals are forced to pay a significant portion of their gross income for the alleged purpose of securing their health care.
- Every aspect of the government’s “promise” to provide health care security is at the mercy of political whim.
- You will be commanded to assist in the health care costs of someone on the other side of the country that may have lived and behaved with no regard to their own health … you will pay the diabetes costs of someone that will not stop eating a case of Twinkies every day, you will pay the AIDS treatment costs of someone that continually uses illegal drugs with dirty needles, you will pay the abortion costs of someone that continues to open their legs for any guy that stops by her house.
Welcome to Hope And Change.
Social Security, payroll tax, universal coverage, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, socialized medicine, health insurance, health care benefit, health care, Hope And Change
