Thoughts on Social Security

A few comments on Social Security, something I know little about. But it appears to me that most of our Congresspersons don’t know much about it either, nor, apparently, does the MSM. We hear talk incessantly about the necessity to do something about Social Security, and very often in tandem with complaints about the deficit.

If I understand it correctly, Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit, nothing at all. This is not to say that nothing needs to be done about S.S. At the moment it is entirely solvent and supposedly will stay that way at least for another ten years or so. The problem is not like Medicare, that is an entitlement, and will have serious problems soon. Social Security is not funded out of ordinary tax dollars and usually runs a surplus. The fear is that with the retirement of the Baby Boomers there will not be enough young workers to produce enough to meet the increasing demand. There are at least two considerations here that I believe have not received much, if any, attention. If funds for Social Security are produced by contributions taken out of worker’s paychecks, as those paychecks rise because of increased productivity, the contributions should also rise, or should have risen. This has not happened because workers have not been given a proper share in the increased productivity. The additional profits generated by technology and increased productivity, as we well know by now, have not been distributed equally. Worker’s pay has not risen for years and in some instances has actually declined, while the benefits of increased productivity have been given to the wealthy and corporations. Thus, it seems to me, if workers had received their fair share, the discrepancy between what is needed and what is being produced would not be as great as we might think it is or will be. This in and of itself would not solve the problem entirely, but it would have helped.

Second, the argument that there are going to be too many old people to support and not enough young people to support them may well be true. But that can only be a temporary problem, because if there are too few young people now there will also be fewer old people in the future. The system will eventually correct itself. This assumes that birthrates and life expectancy will stay more or less as they are now. If for some reason people begin having more children the system will run pretty much as it was designed. If the birthrates keep falling our society will probably eventually disappear. Of course I have no real idea if this is the way things will work, but I am truly tired with hearing about cutting Social Security along with other “entitlements,” when Social Security is a completely separate entity, backed by the full “faith and trust” of the U.S. Government. There are those who believe the Social Security Trust Fund has essentially been stolen and used for other purposes and to minimize the severity of our debt. If that would prove to be true, and if the U.S. Government now tried to renege on its debt, it would simply be a case of theft, and those responsible should go to jail. I find the thought of our entire Government in jail amusing and under the circumstances justifiable.

I’m not really sure of any of this. I’m pretty sure, however, that Republicans are using every excuse and argument they can find or make up to get rid of Social Security. They have been opposed to it ever since FDR managed to establish it, and will obviously continue to attack it no matter what the facts may be.

Anyway, I have pretty much come to the conclusion that our Government is not really serious about governing. When our Congresspersons complain about the deficit after just giving billions in tax breaks to the wealthiest people on earth, and when they want to repeal health care that will cost us further billions it is hard to take them seriously. When you consider some of the things being proposed it is also difficult to take things seriously. President Obama’s budget, for example, barely dents the Pentagon’s obscenely bloated budget, a situation so bad there is no accountability and they don’t even know where all their billions go. Then consider that Congress is approving funds for certain projects, like extra airplane engines, that the Pentagon doesn’t even want. State Governors are certainly not acting very seriously when, for example, one state now is thinking of establishing its own currency, several others are passing state laws that they think will allow them to override Federal laws, one Governor is threatening to call out the National Guard to suppress unions (shades of the 1920’s), Republicans are all criticizing Obama’s budget but have nothing of their own to offer, as is also the case with repealing health care. In Arizona and Texas there is talk of seceding, the “birthers” are still at it, some now believe the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the Tea Party, and Ron Paul wants to return to the gold standard and has suggested that people just “opt out” entirely. When you consider this along with the fact that laws are being blatantly ignored, like those against torture and such, and Supreme Court Justices engage in exceedingly questionable political behaviors, refuse to recuse themselves from cases when they clearly should, and have obvious conflicts of interest, one can only conclude we are not very serious about things. Things are becoming so absurd it is laughable. How long we can continue this way I do not know. Maybe the Libertarians are right, every man for himself, to hell with anything or anyone else, let the strong survive, organized society is such a drag.