Social Insecurity - (Burt Prelutsky's take on the Soc. Sec. problem)

I believe I may be the only person in America who isn’t for or against President Bush’s proposal to save Social Security. Unlike everybody else who seems positive that it is either brilliant and benevolent or stupid and evil, I really don’t have an opinion. As a result, I’m highly suspicious of everyone who claims to have a real handle on the pluses and minuses of his proposal. I mean, facts are facts, and an awful lot of you watch “The Fear Factor” and voted for Kerry and Edwards. Why on earth would I believe you when it’s about something this complex and involves numbers?

I do have some thoughts on the subject, but they mainly take the form of questions. For instance, back in the 90’s, I seem to recall that a lot of politicians, including liberals, were all in a dither because Social Security was tottering on the brink of ruin. The economic seers were telling us that the pay-outs might well cease in the coming decade. Well, here it is the following decade and not only do the checks keep coming, but the Democrats are insisting that the program is solvent for at least the next thirty or forty years.

I’m aware that sometimes cancers in the human body simply seem to disappear. Medical science can’t explain the phenomenon. The power of prayer? A miracle? Mis-diagnosis? Is it possible that such unexplainable events also take place in the body politic? Social Security simply cured itself with plenty of exercise and a change of diet?

So, were they lying to us then or are they lying to us now? Or, politicians being what they are, were they lying then and now?

As a true conservative, meaning I don’t have to pander to special interest groups or worry about getting re-elected, I’m free to say that I am opposed to Social Security. I wish it had never been created. I think that adults are supposed to plan and save for their own retirements. But, then, I also believe that adults should pay for their own health insurance, the same way they pay for car and home insurance. I suspect that if the federal government stopped taxing people to death to finance the Social Security bureaucracy, people just might be able to take care of themselves, just like grown-ups.

As it is, FDR and his colleagues in Congress created the biggest, slickest Ponzi scheme in history. As with all pyramid con games, if you get in early enough, you can expect to do well. But it’s an economic time bomb, and eventually it explodes. Sixty-odd years ago, there was only one retiree for every 13 workers being taxed. The number is now down to about three workers being taxed so that I can collect my monthly check. Even those who are the most sanguine about the current system recognize that pretty soon, the ratio will be two-to-one. Now, I don’t happen to be one of those people who cringes at the thought that we may be leaving our kids and our grandkids with a few financial headaches. God knows they’ve given us plenty. But you don’t have to be Alan Greenspan to recognize this just isn’t fair.

What is glaringly apparent is that Bush at least acknowledges that there is a problem. The Democrats want to pretend that everything is hunky dory and simply use the issue as a club with which to clobber the Republicans in the coming elections.

Apparently the Democrats think that just because some of us are old, we’re also stupid.

Short of getting rid of Social Security and just giving us all our money back, it is obvious that some sort of drastic action is called for.

People like Kennedy, Kerry, Pelosi and Reid, keep insisting that the big bad Bush is simply out to scuttle everybody’s financial future, neglecting to mention that they’ve all made darn certain that none of them will ever depend on Social Security. Congressmen and senators all have a far superior retirement plan to ours. Only in America do the servants have it better than their masters.

Liberal hypocrisy aside, for the Democrats to keep telling us we shouldn’t worry our pretty heads about Social Security is like the entertainment director on the Titanic assuring the passengers, “Everything’s fine. Just keep dancing.”

About the Writer: Burt Prelutsky is a humorist, movie reviewer, writer for television series and movies, and author of the new book, "Conservatives Are From Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco." His website is at http://burtprelutsky.com.
Burt receives e-mail at BurtPrelutsky@aol.com.

Email from Dick McDonald; April 9, 2005

Announcement---"Get Ready To Rumble"

Dick McDonald

"I have created another website specifically devoted to the reform of Social Security. It can be accessed at http://www.thenewsocialsecurity.com. It speaks for itself. But underlying my support for the privatization of Social Security is my desire for the privatization of many of government's functions that would be best performed by the private sector including retirement, medical, medicare, disability, long-term care, life insurance and one of the most important , education. The site will prove we have enough money potential through the magic of compounding. However, it only deals with social security payroll taxes. To implement a real "ownership society" we will have to include the enormous drain property and other taxes siphon off to pay for the inefficient educational disestablishment we presently suffer from.

On this new site I have tried to make a complex problem as simple to understand as possible. The power of compounding is a business-based concept and foreign to the ears of collectivists. Read about compounding and the power it exhibits and you too will be encouraged that your government has a way to solve many of our problems. Unfortunately for the "big government types", more government isn't one of them.

Privatization will generate the greatest redistribution of wealth to the poorest of us that man has ever devised. Liberals and socialists would hardily agree if they had the welfare of the poor at heart. Unfortunately for them, their voting base is made up of those who would benefit most by privatization. Presently they are fighting it with all their resources because they believe that it will make poor Democrats into wealthy Republicans and evaporate their base.

I need your help in getting people to read the new website. If you could help me I would greatly appreciate it. Send a blurb to your friends and write your Congressmen. They have little background in macroeconomics, a subject they struggle through every day.. And don't believe, for even a second, we can't afford it. That is pure political and MSM smokescreen. Read the site and arm yourself. And get ready to rumble."

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