Social Security Is A Scam

The basic premise of Social Security is that the Government feels many people are not smart enough to save money for retirement themselves, so "Big Brother" is going to do it for you. It would be nice if those of us who are able to save could opt out, but if opting out was an option then inevitably, many of the people unable to save would opt out to - thus creating yet another group of people that would be the burden of tax payers when they hit retirement.

So in theory Social Security is a good idea. You should be given a choice of several low risk options to invest your money in, this money would then be invested for you in the way you specify and at retirement all of the assets that were paid in, and all of the interest that was earned would be turned back over to you. Over the course of 30 to 40 working years, putting money in and earning interest - you would have a substantial lump sum of cash to use as you see fit.

Unfortunatley, this is not how it works and here is the scam, Social Security is not the helpful "Big Brother" program that it is said to be. After you retire you will be given a monthly "allowance", the amount of your allownace is decided by the Government. Even though you have loaned this money to the government for up to 40 years they will not pay you a dime of interest! Even if they did, it wouldnt matter anyway, because you will more likely than not, be dead before you even recieve the total amount of cash you paid in. In other words this is just another way for the government to steal your money while claiming to be looking out for you.

When someone brings up an idea like or similiar to what I typed in the second paragraph of this post, They are attacked as being an "evil conservative trying to take away your Social Security and kill you". But why would someone be against an idea that puts so much more money in the hands of our retired citizens? Well first and most obviously because it would take money out of the hands of the Government and we all know money is power. Another reason is that if things were done my way every retiree would be wealthy enough to be independant, which means "not dependant" and more exactly, not dependant on Government - and the more people dependant on Government, the more power the Government has and people dependant on Government are more likely to look the other way when there is courruption, etc.
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Reply #1 Top
I disagree with your analasys of social security. Though I do think that it is flawed, it is not a scam for the government to steal money. The truth is, social security is underfunded. Also, the retirment age is too low. People are living longer than ever and theres no reason you can't work at 70. Also, you should be required to pay taxes on your social security income. Further, the structure of social security should be changed. Right now, other government agencies can "steal" money from the social security fund. I too thought of indivudualized accounts, and I too thought why people couldn't invest on their own. The fact is, the working class, when the retire, will not have a sustainable income without good investments, and since they may not have the capability to make such investments, the government pays them more than they put in, by paying them some of what other people put in. Thus the rich get less than they put in, though I don't hear this as a complaint coming from the conservatives. The way to solve the problem is (as i mentioned earlier) to raise the retirment age, and second to raise the social security tax. Lastly, social security money needs to remain social security money and not used for other purposes (and likewise, monies not collected through the social security tax should not be spent to issue social security payments). Also, I hate to be blunt, but taxes in general need to be raised/ and or restructured. If anyone is intrested in hearing my outline of the way to do this, please let me know.
Reply #2 Top
For libertarians Social Security is a tough question. On the one hand, for the government to force you to do anything is fundamentally wrong. Also, this is money that, if not taken by the government, could be used to to invest or better the persons quality of life. On the other, social security is probably cheaper in the long run because of the increase in poor elederly that would happen if the system were to be abolished. Most libertarians support a system which still requires you to invest a certain percentage of your income, but allows people to make this minimum income investment in the private companies of their choice, if they wish. A lot of liberals will say "oh, the poor don't know about wall street, they'll be swindled" or "but the private companies they invest in could go out of business and then they'll have nothing". Looking at the situation rationally, you see that its not really the case. If you track the S&P 500 back 100 years you see that its made an average annual return of about 13%. Yes some years it made 25%, some years it lost 15%, but thats an average that you can't refute. 13% is pretty darn good, much better than anything the government could give.