Thursday, October 11, 2012

Part of the Reason for Shunning Social Security

To be fair to my readers, when I posted "This Post Cost Me $2200" I did not expand on all the reasons for doing it.

I started several years ago thinking about where the money would come from to pay me that $26K+ per year (although I didn't know it was that much, I figured it was close to that). The payments come either from borrowed money that has to be paid back with interest, or from printing it, which devalues every dollar that is already in print. And that is because from day one (1935) all money taken allegedly to fund Social Security went immediately into the general tax coffers. (There is family
history related to this.)

Such a cache would surely tempt decent moral men. But lawyers and politicians? C'mon. I once posed it as something like the following.

Social security has provided politicians the tax money they wanted for their favorite programs when they were certain the people wouldn't like paying for it. Of course they were too cowardly to face the music at the ballot box by imposing taxes for other programs, with a good portion of that money going into the pockets of cronies. So they pretended that by putting the payments off into the future it wasn't really a problem. But today it is very serious problem (as it had to become eventually) — but half the damn politicians still won't admit it. So ultimately FICA payroll extractions became taxes for other things, thus levied under false pretext. And the house of cards gets shakier every day.
Bottom line is the whole total of the SS "trust" fund (what Al Gore infamously said was in a lock-box) has been borrowed to pay for other things in addition to past retirees. Now every penny paid out must be borrowed again, with interest. ("Backed by the full-faith and credit of the United States Government" that was recently reduced a second notch to AA)

My small contribution won't stop the hemorrhaging or the enslavement of the coming generations. But at least I'm one man who says ENOUGH already, and am putting my money where my mouth is each month I continue this campaign. Tell me: how many career politicians are willing to match me even dollar for dollar, let alone the portion of my total worth? The good news is I'm not holding my breath waiting to hear of them.

Social security was a tax for other purposes not stated, and apparently always was a tax for other purposes. We as a nation -- several generations -- allowed our political hacks to lie to us and keep on being reelected rather than tarred and feathered. So we are all to blame and ought to take some responsibility for it when we can.

What really troubles me.
The idea that I would be further helping to forge the chains of our posterity troubles me greatly. Especially because I failed to learn how to effectively fight this cancer when I was younger.  This is my small measure of penance. I was too busy make a living at what came easily to me so I could raise my family. I never thought I was suited to engage more fully in politics. If I had, maybe things would be different at least a little. I tried, but did not try hard enough. [One really abysmal story of my ill-preparedness is here.] This is my self assessed penalty for that failure. I pray I can afford to keep my resolve.
 

Yes, there is more. As the need arises again in me, I will post more.

4 comments:

  1. "So ultimately FICA payroll extractions became taxes for other things, thus levied under false pretext."
    Excellent point.
    Now, how would you feel about only withdrawing the amount you've been taxed plus interest?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd not thought about that as a possibility because of the nasty tactics we have had from the radicals and abetted by party elder "statesment" in the past. Were we given the opportunity you suggested, it would be a first step towards acknowledging the scam. I might consider it then, because it would be the first break the establishment's stonewall.

      See, every effort to get some reform has been blocked, first by Left radical agitprop, and then by abetted by the two-faced SKUNCs who always precipitate the retreat from any such fight by undermining from all sorts of angles the conservatives who were eager to fight.

      See my next post for an example.

      Delete
    2. Well, actually, it will probably be the post after the next one that provides the example of the nasty tactics.

      Delete
    3. Ed. I finally posted the answer to your question. See part 5 Political Cowardice and Social Security

      Delete

View My Stats