The Biggest Ponzi Scheme in America: Social Security

Finally, it's payday. The day you have been looking forward to all week. Your check is in hand and you eagerly glance down to see all that hard-earned money you earned for your labor. But there is a line on the pay stub that catches your eye.  

Social Security.

And you soon realize that a good portion of your weekly income supports it.

Social Security initially started out as a temporary government program. Although, the words temporary and government in the same sentence is funny enough, bear with me for a moment while I explain.

Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War, the government decided to give out pensions to support widows and orphans if their deceased soldier had been disabled in combat. Soon after, legislation decided that all disabled war veterans could receive benefits as well. Now, flash forward to the Great Depression when people lost everything they had invested in. The president began receiving letters from older folks who needed financial assistance or had dire medical needs with no one to take care of them. FDR finally decided to create pension plans for the elderly, as part of his "New Deal", and the official Social Security program was born.

So how does Social Security actually work? Current generation laborers pay into a S.S. fund while previous generation retirees receive a monthly pension from the same fund. Sounds like a pretty smooth program, doesn't it? But the government did not take into account what would happen when a large generation, such as the baby boomers, would be followed and supported by a smaller generation. The baby boomers were such a large part of the workforce, that they ended up paying out large sums of money into the Social Security fund and now expect the money to be there when they retire. But who is going to support them? "Population surges", such as these, will eventually cause the money to run out. The government's solution to this problem is to raise the retirement age so they do not have to pay out any sooner than they have to.

Smaller generations supporting larger ones is not the only problem with Social Security. Politicians cannot seem to keep their grubby hands off of any money that is "set aside" for an entirely different purpose than the one they want to use it for. Rather than borrow from foreign creditors,they just take money from the S.S. fund to fund ridiculous political programs and then give people IOU's. You really think the government has enough courtesy to pay American's back? Hmmmm.......I don't think so.

Want to hear something really radical? Social Security is unconstitutional. Yep, it's true. Money is considered to be an asset and a measurement of our wealth and prosperity. We also invest our money into our home, clothing, and other everyday items that we would consider to be our property.

The Fifth Amendment states:
"No person shall be....deprived of life, liberty, or property, without the due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Essentially, the government is allowed to just take away part of your earnings and give it away to others. We are talking about your property, being stolen and you do not have any say in the matter. And there is no guarantee that your money will be there when you finally decide to retire. I would say this is a violation against our rights as Americans.

Lest you are getting the wrong idea, I am not in any way bigoted toward the elderly, nor do I want Social Security to end and leave millions of older folks out on the streets. I understand that the aging population has come to depend on that income, and interrupting this cycle would result in grave consequences. But there has to be a better way to handle retirement. In fact, I know there is, because any successful program wouldn't involve the government.

The role of the federal government (as the founders intended) is to stay out of our lives. We do not need their programs, we do not need their "help", we do not need to be continually lied to, and we most certainly do not need to be swindled out of our own money.

Sources:
SSA
U.S. Constitution
"Lies the Government Told You" by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano