Friday, December 2, 2011

It Was Not Broken Until They Fixed It

Recent reports reveal the unemployment rate is at its lowest level since 2009, partly because people are leaving the workforce.  Apart from receiving a large inheritance, physical injury, or death, a common reason for leaving the workforce is retirement.
Paralleling the dropping unemployment rate is the fact that “Baby Boomers” are reaching retirement age in droves.  Politicians have long known and used this information as a scare tactic to influence voters with empty promises to “fix” the “problem.”  Older citizens are told the money they depend on to live cannot continue, and younger citizens are told the fund will not be there for them.  The proposed solution being, “vote for me and I will fix it.”
How is it possible that Social Security is in trouble?  Contrary, to email wisdom, illegal aliens and welfare recipients are not the problem.  Social Security payments are based on the amount a worker has paid into the system, with a minimum time in system requirement.  Very simply, people who do not pay into the system for the required time do not receive retirement payments.  This is also true for disabled people, non-working spouses, surviving spouses and orphans.  Additionally, recent studies show that most people die before receiving all that was paid into the system on their behalf.  Our own payment schedule requires that my wife and I must reach the age of 92 before the money we paid is fully returned. 
The real problem with Social Security is that politicians have and are spending more than is generated by the general tax base.  Therefore, they used Social Security monies to fund their deficit spending and now, the government is so far in debt that it cannot repay the loans.  At the same time, the Social Security Taxes being collected are not sufficient to sustain the system.
            There is no legitimate reason for Social Security to be insolvent.  If the fund is depleted before its time, we can blame the politicians, not the actuarial tables.  The actuarial tables allow insurance companies to pay benefits and still make a healthy profit.  They will do the same for Social Security when politicians quit borrowing money from the fund without repaying it and depending on current Social Security Taxes to cover existing and future obligations to retirees.
            The failure of Social Security is only the tip of the iceberg and looms on the horizon as a warning to all who will heed.  Deficit spending must stop and it should be clear to anyone with enough sense to manage his own finances that the people in office today are incompetent, or unwilling, to stop the spending.  The only way to show politicians that pork-barrel politics do not work is by voting them out of office. 
Regardless of party affiliation or lack thereof, the single issue needs to be:  Do not vote for the incumbent!  This means we may need to hold our noses while voting for someone from a different party, or for someone with a different political or religious view, but politics and religion are not the issues before us.  Crushing debt that will put us in servitude to those who own our mortgaged future is the issue.  Even servants have political and religious views, but they don’t have freedom.

Jim

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