Okay, this seems pretty simple to me. Social Security is a program designed to help basically two different kinds of people -- retirees, and people who have a disability that prevents them from working. It was not intended to be an investment plan, in the conventional sense of the term, but rather a safety net that would be there for whoever needed it. Social Security and investment plans are not mutually exclusive -- anyone who chooses to invest in the stock market, or other investment plans, can do so without jeapordizing their Social Security benefits. Privatization of Social Security wouldn't fix the program, it would destroy it by redirecting funds that normally go into the Social Security fund elsewhere, leaving the program unable to provide a safety net for those who choose not to participate in other investment plans, or whose circumstances preclude such participation. Also, what happens to those whose investments don't earn expected returns and are left impoverished or destitute? They would be left to rot, dependent on handouts from family and friends, with no government program able to provide for them.
It appears to me to be another poorly disguised effort to keep wealth and power in the hands of the rich.
What do you think?
:~)aniel
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2 comments:
Right on, how 'bout taxing the rich as a reform, instead? Bro. Dave
Hi, Dave!
I'm for a 10% tax on gross income right across the board for all legal entities (people of legal age and corporations), rich and poor. Very few exceptions, only under extreme circumstances. Actually I'd like to see a voluntary tax, where The People contribute whatever they can afford in accordance with how well they think the government's been doing it's job, how much they think they want their government to spend on this and that, and so on. Then the people WE elect to run OUR government use THAT amount of money to take care of national defense and infrastructure, represent the will of the 50 Sovereign and United States in international dealings, and whatever else We the People want done with OUR money. Sort of like the founding fathers intended. 10% of the GNP should be enough to take care of the basics, and we can leave the rest to the States, Counties, Municipalities, communities, churches, advocacy groups, and other legal and ad hoc, formal and informal, citizens groups. That's very similar to one of the fundamental precepts of the Libertarian political ideology, as I understand it - but, though I agree with some of their thinking, I think I take issue with some of it too; so I'll stick to being an Independent.
Anyway, understanding that that idea is way too idealistic to be practical, and most people aren't noble enough (or bright enough?) to contribute their 10% or whatever to the Common Good, I suppose I'll have to settle for the 10% across the board rule.
Of course people in hell want ice water, too.......
And with the current situation, i.e. we as a nation have allowed our government to put us into debt to the degree where our common law freedoms have been usurped by our equity law courts, and the corporate mindset behind the whole tapestry that ensnares us, it is unlikely in the extreme that the individual rights of human beings are ever going to be considered equal to those of a giant corporation, save in those few cases that are either arranged as window dressing to console the peopulace and bolster a claim of compassion, or are lost in court 'accidentally' and simply end up getting taken advantage of in the same way ("Oh, look, Mr. Williams won his case against the XYZ Corporation, isn't that nice, see Dorothy, we do still have human rights!")
Right.
Social Security, now, is a different thing entirely, it's a fund we pay into when we're young and collect from when we're old. Well, basically, anyway. And that's not money to run the government with, that's money for our retirement or disability that we've accumulated all our working lives - it's OUR money, too, but even more so than the tax money we trust the government to manage for our collective good - this is money the government isn't even supposed to touch, except to give it back to us when we need it.
Ah, heck, things are so screwed up I have serious doubts we'll ever be able to get it straightened out, without having another revolution or something. And no, all you alphabet soup people who are probably scanning this for trigger words, I'm not advocating violence. I'm a Red White and Blue Patriot. I just want my people, my fellow Americans, my friends and neighbors, to get our country back from the bankers, politicians, and corporations. I want our government to rediscover the meaning of "Of, By and For the People."
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