Wednesday, January 5, 2005

Scrap Social Security?

This is an update on the much awaited, much debated, and much hated (by the left, at least) possible 'overhaul' of Social Security.

My suggestion? Scrap it. At a minimum, let me opt out. Hell, you can keep all the money you've already got, just let me have the 12% of my income. I'll buy something, or I'll save it, regardless, it's not any business of the federal government what I do with it. I promise not to ask for anything when I retire. OK? Deal? I dont want to have 4% of it available to go into another retirement account of the government's choosing! If I want to buy a custom circus clown outfit, let me do it!

That, of course, isn't possible, because contrary to what everyone says about 'paying in' and 'getting out', Social Security is nothing more than redistribution of wealth from those who are working to those who are not. And it's a negative sum game, because there is a huge cost associated with the program, sucking those dollars out of my pocket, and putting them in the pockets of government employees and people who may or may not have planned properly for their own retirement (of course, it isn't their fault, since they had to pay SS for the generation before them).


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