Ayn Rand and Social Security
Posted by overmanwarrior 10 years ago to Government
Social Security was a stupid idea, and it never should have been enacted. It is an insult to stick the government in between Americans and their so-called retirements. I resent every deduction taken from my paycheck as a theft stolen from me, because the government will never be in a position to pay me back all the money I have “invested” under coercion. I have personal friends who hate Social Security so badly they have essentially given up their citizenship over the issue. One of those friends had began plotting his deferral from the Social Security system in the 5th grade—no kidding. He was a very smart kid and while the other kids were talking about the rock band KISS and the new show on television called The Dukes of Hazzard, he was planning on how to legally refuse his obligations toward Social Security. As an adult, he gave up his citizenship after years of legal entanglement—but—he doesn’t pay into the system, because as he was always right, Social Security is stolen money not granted by an infant when they are issued a card after being registered by their parents. His argument was that his parents didn’t have a right to commit him to a life obligation into such a contract with the government.
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The actual example is that if you are average Joe, worked for around 40 years, invested the SSI amount at the then current CD interest rate over the years, today you would have well in excess of $1mm, and here's the key...YOU would own it. It would continue to accrue in retirement, unlike Social Security, and if you've invested prudently, your heirs would inherit that amount or significantly more.
. The short version being: "By right, I'M entitled to claim money that YOU earned."
I.E. Bernie Madoff structured his "Retirement Fund" exactly the same as Social Security. Ask him how it's working out for him and his investors.
If and I say IF it had been implemented as it had been sold to the people, and maintained as such, The money pulled from your income would have been placed in YOUR account and you would draw based ONLY on what YOU put in.
Galveston TX. The ONLY place to actually implement properly.
Having said that when the US Government decided to start writing IOU's (Clinton Era to "balance budgets") Social Security breathed it death sigh.
BUT, having said all that, my root belief is we should be responsible 100% for our financial security, and ONLY each of us, so if we starve it is OUR fault only. (Ant and Grasshopper)
I never heard of Ayn Rand until the first AS flick came out.
I even called her "Ann" up until the second AS movie.
OK, who wants to hurt my precious little feelings?
Still, a mystery. I hope all of the current challenges fare better, as we aren't go to get a repeal with this current moron in the WH, or god forbid, another Democrat President.
I don't remember the exact numbers, but I remember a simple investment analysis done years ago that showed if you could opt out of SS from the start of working, and invested what would have been your SS deduction, even at a fixed, very low rate of interest, you would have at least a $1M, or more, nest egg at 65.
I also know, as probably all of us do, if you look at your annual summary of your cumulative lifetime SS contributions, you will NEVER get that amount of money back, unless perhaps your name is Methuselah.
In the very near future Social Security will stop being a cash cow that the government uses to get funds and becomes a liability
Expect that it will be under fire from the same liberals who value it so highly when it cuts into thei money for the programs they use to buy voters.
Suddenly means testing our retirement account will become the popular thing.
That was 59 years ago. I remember it perfectly. I always believed he would be proven correct. So each and every time I get a check I am surprised. But I frgging paid into that fund every paycheck since I was 12. It is not an entitlement!
Obviously I believe all such programs should have been declared unconstitutional.
I know some of the even more outrageous programs were declared unconstitutional, hence FDR's failed attempt to "pack" SCOTUS by adding justices sympathetic to more Socialist schemes. My guess is if the court-packing hadn't failed then, Obama would have tried it by now.
If you file for and receive Social Security "benefits" (and please note that they no longer use the word 'entitlement), then have more than $18,500 in earned income, your SSI benefits can be taxed at 50%!
To top it all off, when you pass away, SSI STOPS. Period. Your estate gets nothing. It all returns to the government, even if you died prior to receiving your first payment. If you tried to set up a retirement plan for your employees using that model, they'd put you in jail, and rightfully so.
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