The Social Insecurity System Continues to Systemically Fall Short

By Sidney Secular

April 22, 2023

The Social Security system is not built to provide a solid financial foundation for seniors and is itself not built on a solid enough foundation to meet current expectations. It has actually become more untenable and unstable than the rest of crumbling America 2.0. The math behind SSI is not a formula for providing security to a vulnerable population segment. The actuaries know the numbers do not compute, but they don’t care – or rather, the ones not involved in government may care, but they know that they can do nothing in the matter. As to the government numbers crunchers, all that they care about is enriching themselves, promoting their satanic agenda, and controlling everything and everyone else.

The libertarian Ayn Rand acolytes and reactionaries and the Conservatism, Inc. crowd who don’t conserve anything, are chomping at the bit more than a bit in hopes of ending Social Security and Medicare. They callously call these “benefits” entitlements – that is, government largess for which the recipient pays nothing! – as if they are charitable privileges, something that they decidedly are not. Every worker pays into the SSI system for their entire working life and get much less out of it than they put into it. Many times over the years, models have been produced showing that people putting away far less money than they are forced to pay into SSI for their eventual returns would have come out of the whole thing far wealthier than was the case under their mandatory involvement in SSI! Many radical government systems, such as SSI, are introduced as temporary and/or voluntary, but incrementally become fixations and fixtures in the system when folks stop watching. The Social Security system is certainly not voluntary as everyone must participate, even billionaires who don’t need the pittances doled out to them when they reach “retirement” age. Proposals for a voluntary “opt out” as was made by Ross Perot, are flippantly flipped aside. As Social Security is a legacy of FDR, it cannot be questioned and is revered beyond reason – and more to the point, once Congress got up the guts to “raid the locked box,” SSI deposits have been a very handy source of public funds to use for various political needs! The stats don’t matter to “social justice” warriors, so don’t confuse them with the system’s status or the facts. Social Security is sacrosanct to the suckers who are sapped of their Simoleans deducted from their paychecks and eventually suffer from its paltry payments and “diet colas.”

Sure, no one wants the elderly to literally be left out in the cold after they can no longer work, but the small Govmint stipends are not enough to subsist on, but having little or no choice, about half the population will still make that attempt. That portion of the population will put up with whatever comes their way and will not save for a rainy day, supposing that that option is even open to them, having been accustomed to or expecting increases in Govmint handouts which they pray will save their bacon. Once upon a time, they would have never thought that way. Up until sometime just before the Great Depression, strong family ties and social networks and not the government dole provided for the financial and “social” needs of workers when they retired. Extended families extended their caring to close family members, grandparents, and even aunts and uncles who weren’t part of the nuclear family but were in need of assistance. Nursing homes did not exist and there was no penchant for worker or old age pensions in the early part of the 20th century.

All of this changed drastically after WWII and was very much fueled by the automobile. The psychological and social trauma of the war changed much if not all of the American way of life. Men coming home found that a lot of their employment opportunities had been lost to those who remained at home during the war; in other words, they had been replaced. On the other hand, new opportunities were popping up everywhere and whole families got in the family car and migrated far away from the old neighborhood and its family ties. New parents didn’t have relatives to call upon when children were born, so Dr. Spock took their place! And it only got worse as time went on. In the 50s, older people became “gray panthers” and were advised to move far away from their children and grandchildren turning states like Florida into old folks’ preserves. Of course, the plea was to selfishness. One’s children and especially one’s grandchildren became burdens to be avoided rather than family to be succored using the wisdom gained by age. Every aspect of the family was under attack by a culture that saw this arrangement only as a means of preventing individuals from gaining their greatest desires. Women were assured that motherhood and childrearing were blocking their own personal validation; that careers were more important than their families and that being a “homemaker” was just another word for chattel slavery! And as families became more dysfunctional over time and religious faith weakened, and thus the need for the Govmint to step in and provide for seniors who would otherwise have been left to starve arose. To call it “social” as in “Social Security” was a misnomer as the Govmint in its new role as ‘big brother” had none of the social characteristics of close family ties. As we have seen, there was no real “security” in the new dispensation. The dispensing of increasingly cheapened dollars was nothing to hang one’s hat upon in the sunset years.

For head scratching reasons, Social Security has always had an income cap with regards to taxation. While it has increased in recent years, presently the first $160,000 in income can be withheld from taxation. As a result, the wealthiest Americans have always had a much smaller portion of their income taxed than the people who really need the supplemental income or the “pension” provided by Social Security. It’s ridiculous since the wealthy have no need for the pocket change that they will receive in Social Security payments. Indeed, this fact has always been known, and not only to wealthy Americans. There was even a story that went around when the system was new, that wealthy entertainer Jack Benny, having become eligible for his first payment, went down to the Social Security office, took his check and then either gave it back or gave it away with a note to the government that he was not in need of this “charity!” Whether that was fact or fiction is unknown but it shows that the least “needful” people were included in the SSI “mix.”

In any event, SSI seems a baffling tool for libbers devising a tax since it is the antithesis of their beloved graduated income tax concept. Instead, they demean the concept of helping the little man that once gave them their raison de etre. For the Social Security system to be financially secure, all income should be subject to taxation. There should also be means testing to determine who doesn’t qualify for Social Security “pensions.” Of course, the removal of the 1% from that system also means that what they presently provide monetarily will no longer be available to those who are in actual need of SSI benefits. So, of course, the less in, the less available to go out. But under the present situation, all we are doing is making the rich 1% still richer, and this has been going on for a long time without anyone seeming to notice it. The “soak the rich” battle cry of the left instead has become a means of soaking the little man. Apparently, Bernie Sanders is out to lunch on this issue. Neither has there been any attempt to reform the system to make it more equitable. Some right-wingers have no rational alternative except to advise us to “wing it” in a rigged and corrupt marketplace. Neither is a strict libertarian approach practical, and it also smacks of being immoral, a sort of “survival of the fittest” worldview. To tell the truth, there is simply no trustworthy option for the vast majority of people, or at least that is the way most Americans see it. They have never been taught how to save and invest their money, so they feel at sea on these matters. And even those who try to be adept at their finances all cower under the might of the IRS whose rules and penalties make the reigns of ancient tyrants into periods of justice and light! A few wrong moves however innocent and the ordinary American finds him or herself in the cross-hairs of that extra-legal bureaucratic monstrosity.

As well, now the rapacious corporations have removed the offering of pensions leaving most workers adrift in a sea of untenable occupations and financial choices. This is the sea change brought about by the multi-nationalist urge to move anywhere in order to obtain ultra-cheap labor or, in the alternative, to use the current invaders. . . er, “immigrants” as a domestic labor source thus leaving American workers out in the cold. Unless you’re a retired civil servant, or a Silicon Valley techy, you’re unlikely to have a good pension plan. Federal workers have a retirement plan called the “Thrift Savings Plan” similar to an IRA, only (of course!) better. It offers a variety of investment options related to risk factors but doesn’t rely on annual funding from Congress because the funding is guaranteed. It may be that at least some states have similar plans for their employees. As mentioned previously, seniors can’t depend on families anymore as our society is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. The same sad sack situation plays out amongst all the component groups among the Deplorables, where 70% of them live paycheck to paycheck and have less than $1,000 in the bank about which they now have to worry lest it be removed and replaced with “social credit money” for which obedience and compliance become necessary components for survival.

Commingling the Social Security funds with the general federal budget was obviously foolish – or would have been foolish if it had not been a criminal (and successful) attempt to permit the politicians to raid the SSI lockbox. LBJ was responsible for that move and of course, a great deal more monkeying around. He never missed an opportunity to influence any “political misdemeanor” despite his public demeanor. Other presidents including Ronald Reagan couldn’t resist the temptation to get in on the act. The great “tax cutter” was the first president to subject Social Security pay outs to a tax. Unfortunately, Reagan was forced to give in to many Democrat demands including taxes in order to reconstitute the American military after Jimmy Carter ran out of spare parts for the air force. In a better world, individual accounts should have been set up for each worker to effectively isolate all funds. The worker should have been given the opportunity to invest their SSI contributions in government sponsored funds, which would have very likely increased the levels of their benefit returns over the guaranteed baseline formula figures. It’s too late now . . . Indeed considering how close the politicians and bureaucrats hold on to their government goodies, it was probably never a possibility in the first place. The last thing government types want is John Q. Public having access to their golden parachutes.

The other component of the supposed safety net for the elderly is Medicare, which likewise is a scam of the first order. It was sold to the American public with the notion that there were starving seniors out there – not many, but still – that this kindly nation should be taking care of. We were told that the federal government was far more able to help in this crisis than some of our poorer States and so Medicare was born. Like SSI, Medicare extracts a portion of every worker’s paycheck for their entire working lives. However, they keep on charging you a monthly fee once you are finally eligible to collect your benefits. It’s gone up to $165 per month now but it only covers 80% of your medical costs which in essence makes it a substandard and in some cases, a useless plan. Medical procedures are very expensive and few have more of such than seniors. Individuals having to cough up 20% of such charges can be impossibly expensive for those on “fixed” incomes. This has resulted in a boom in the supplemental medical insurance industry and its purveyors and providers. And, of course, where there is insurance available, there are rapid rises in the prices of those things covered by that insurance. With the constant threats that the Social Security and Medicare systems are running or will run out of money, usually estimated to be about 10 years from whenever, and the constant FedGov boondoggles which raid the coffers to cough up money for all manner of unconstitutional and socialist schemes and to support woke regimes around the world, there’s a good chance younger people will never get to see any Social Security “entitlement” checks. Of course, as things are now going, we are assured that we “will own nothing and be happy!” so that should not be a big surprise.

Parenthetically, there is another benefit to this contest between younger workers and what they have to pay for regarding the care and maintenance of the elderly in light of the increasing lifespan of those same elderly. This is a contest in which the FedGuv engages albeit quietly – at least for now. During the COVID idiocy, many nursing homes “benefitted” from COVID stricken patients being housed among the frail occupants of these facilities. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo killed not a few New York senior citizens using this means of “culling the herd.” So, our “leaders” create yet another field of battle between senior citizens and the rest of the population with younger Americans being told that their financial (and possibly health) wellbeing would be served by a decrease in the elderly population. Already many States are passing restrictions and guidelines aimed at lessening the number of elderly people dependent upon the dole. And, of course, younger people are happy to vote into office those who support these efforts to remove this expensive population from the scene. Years ago, a state governor was quoted as saying that the old should “die and get out of the way.” Today that same man is in his 70s and no longer pushes that agenda.

Another “Damocles’ Sword” hangs over these systems which further threatens to slice benefits. That would be an amnesty for illegal aliens. Congress in its infinite stupidity – or rather cupidity! – is considering several bills that would offer legal status and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, a.k.a. “undocumented workers.” Of course, their “benefits” and “voting privileges” will kick in before their citizenship, but hey! You get what you pay for. In addition to the wide-ranging and destructive legal and cultural effects amnesty would introduce, the salient financial effects on our society and the additional costs to Social Security and Medicare would be profound and astronomical. The beneficiaries of this legislation would receive far more in benefits than they would have contributed in taxes – if they ever contributed anything in taxes! One calculation is that each amnesty recipient would receive about $129,000 in lifetime benefits under Part A of Medicare (hospital insurance). Multiply that by the increasing numbers of illegals with their high birth rates and you have an enormous sum. As well, this mind boggling cost doesn’t take into account annual cost of living adjustments (COLA’s) that recipients will (may?) receive for the years inflation will continue to run rampant as the printing presses run off bogus Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) to augment the “money” supply. It is not a pretty picture!

E-Mail Sidney Secular: Success_Express@yahoo.com