Social Insecurity
- March 14, 2004
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Does anyone else think Social Security (SS) is a gigantic robbery? How could this sort of institution be passed in the first place? How is the idea of taking my money and paying for someone else’s retirement a good one? I guess if the government didn’t spend the original surplus we’d be doing ok, but you know the big spenders in Congress couldn’t keep their filthy hands off all that money! So now that surplus is gone. There’s no way for Congress to pay out those benefits besides raising taxes or cutting benefits. Either one of those is going to make a LOT of people unhappy, but I’m betting Congress would rather go with raising taxes. Cutting benefits is political suicide.
The age at which you can begin collecting SS is rising. I most likely won’t be able to collect until I’m 70! That’s if I’ll even be able to collect something. So I will have put a lot of money into a system that can’t pay me back when the time comes. That’s wrong!
When SS first began, there were 16 workers paying towards the retirement of 1 person. Today that number is down to 3.3 to 1. In a few years, it’ll go to 2 to 1. And it will only get worse with the giant influx of Baby Boomers who start collecting SS soon.
I went looking for ways to opt-out of SS today and discovered there is no way! I hope I’m wrong on that. Some articles I read made it sound like there is a way to opt out, but they never stated how. I would like to know how and what the consequences of opting out are going to be. If I’m right though, then basically the government is saying, “You don’t know how to invest in your future, but we have ideas. So we’ll just take your money and you can’t stop us.” That is pretty much the same thing as highway robbery. The almighty government is all-knowing and caring, while we the ignorant masses don’t know what’s good for us. How far have we strayed from the original idea of the U.S. government? Surely this isn’t what the founding fathers had in mind?
There’s going to be a big generational divide if this isn’t taken care of. The younger generations will not look at the older generations the same. Instead of seeing them as sources of wisdom and guidance, they’ll see them as leeches and a burden. When that happens, younger generations will start seriously considering horrible ideas like euthanasia.
Why can’t my generation and others decide what to do with their hard-earned money? We should have that choice, not be told to bend over. If we invest our money poorly, then that’s our problem, but it doesn’t effect everyone else. This will also force our generation into learning more about good investment practices and plans. We’ll learn about investing in our children and their futures as well. In our country’s future.
There are movements now to reform SS and allow there to be a choice. Those of us who stand to lose out on SS need to stand up and make these changes happen. Other countries have done it and were successful. We should do it as well.
There are many sites out about SS and reform. Do a search on Google for opting out of social security, and you’ll find a ton of articles both for and against it. Here are a few:
- iOptOut.org
- Opting Out and Adverse Selection
- Opting Out Of Social Security
- Privatize Social Security?
- Social Security Privatization: Experiences Abroad
If you know of good resources on the subject, please leave a comment with the link.