Social Security A Bad Investment

Social Security: A Bad Investment

By Rick Kenai

Much has been said recently about the viability of the Social Security program. Millions of Americans worry about the fact that there is a good chance that they will never see any of the money that they are paying into this program.

Let’s look at this matter generally before we get down to some specifics.

What I can’t figure out is when and where the federal government decided that it was responsible for the retirement of its citizens. I’ve read and reread the Constitution and I can’t find it anywhere. It’s in none of the articles or amendments. I asked this question on a debate forum that I moderate and was told that it was because we had some poor and starving seniors in this country. This is a bad thing and of course should never happen. But then again, we all live in some sort of reality and on this planet there are people who make bad decisions and don’t provide for themselves at all, much less plan for a retirement. Then there are people that make the right decisions and do the things necessary to provide a comfortable living for their families and their retirement. Liberals want all of us to live in a society where we punish the people who make the right decisions in life and support (which is different than help) those who have made the wrong decisions.

Let’s move on to some specifics about Social Security.

Somehow it has come to be believed that the money taken from us for social security is a tax. Taxes are levied to pay for government. We never see that money again. The government tells us that we will (supposedly) be getting this money back again for our retirement. Therefore, social security is not a tax, but rather a sort of insurance/investment program. Isn’t that what the liberals call it? Aren’t they constantly asking the American people to invest in this and that?
So let’s look at social security as an investment program.

When a person makes an investment, they sit down and decide, based on their family’s needs and wants, how much of their income they can afford to put aside as an investment. And sometimes, this amount will change from month to month. But with social security, you pay a set amount no matter what emergencies may be happening in your life, regardless of what your family budget may need. It doesn’t matter that your kid may need glasses, or your wife is pregnant. Or maybe a person worked 80-120 hours per week for the last five years and wants to splurge some of the money that he has worked this hard for and has earned by their own blood, sweat, and tears on a vacation in a place that they have dreamed of going to all their life.

In a normal investment, an individual can leave that money to his family or other loved one in the event of that person’s death. In the social security system, when an individual dies, that money is gone. Oh, a child will get a portion of the money that individual paid into the system. But only a fraction of it and nowhere near the amount they would receive if only half that money had been invested privately.

In a normal investment, an individual looks for a sizeable return on the monies invested. In the social security system if you do happen to live long enough to collect benefits you will receive less than a 1% return on your investment.

In a normal investment, if an individual gets sick, he can take some of the monies invested to help themselves through times of being unable to work. With the Social Security system you won’t see a dime of the money taken from you, no matter what happens to you or your family. Until (and assuming) that you live long enough.

I don’t know about you, but if a salesman came to me with a package like social security, and asked me to spend my hard earned money on it. They would be laughed at and sent packing. But this is the plan that liberals want us all to be on. This is the plan that our Imperial Federal Government has decreed that we will take part in under penalty of imprisonment.

One final note.

http://www.csss.gov/meetings/sandiego/Judge_Ray_Holbrook_Statement.pdf

Here’s a link to an article by Judge Ray Holbrook who is a retired Judge from Galveston County, Texas.

Galveston County opted out of the Social Security Program back in the early 80’s, and now their county employess enjoy a retirement much more comfortable than if they had stayed with Social Security.

The Social Security program is broken and needs to be scrapped. Let people be responsible for themselves and let's get the federal government out of this portion of our lives where it has no Constitutional charter to be in the first place.