Today it is reported that the social security system is closer to insovlency than previously anticipated and I can't help but wonder why ....why in this time of massive bailouts...a program that has provided security and stability to four generations of retiring WORKING AMERICANS is deemed expendable. Despite the good faith contribution of millions of working Americans, this program will die, this government promise broken while truckloads of money are poured into saving businesses teetering on the brink of failure as a result of gross mismanagement, flawed business models, and abject greed. Somehow, it just doesn't seem fair. Follow me below for my thoughts....
As a working American who has been dutifully paying into the social security program for more than 30 years and who continues to max out his contribution on an annual basis, I feel ripped off. Each year I pay and yet my generation (40 somethings) is being told there will be no money for us when we hit retirement age. This comes the same year that my 401 evaporates and the value of my home plummets. I kept my promise. I work hard. I save money. I don't buy on credit and I pay my social security taxes, hoping in the end that through my combined effort I'll somehow be able to scrape enough together to have a reasonable retirement at a reasonable age.
So what about the government's promise? If saving equity and preserving value in private corporations is so important that we can "mortgage our future" for it, then what about social security? What about return on that investment...and the forced investment of millions of other Americans....what about the promise made to us by the government of the United States of America? What is Uncle Sam's word worth?
Increasingly it seems, Americans are being forced into a paradigm of indentured servitude and forced labor. If things don't change, YOU WILL NEVER RETIRE. Unless you are lucky enough to make millions upon millions, or scrupulous enough to steal it by other means, you are not likely to have a reliable retirement that allows you to keep your home, eat and get adequate medical care. You will always be one stroke of bad luck from disaster. For those of you who think you can trade an honest day's labor for an honest day's pay and still retire at some point prior to your 70th birthday, you've got to be feeling the same anxiety I feel.
The great thing about a forced retirement program backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government is that, in exchange for your forced tax contribution to this program, you are promised a return that will subsidize your retirement and, hopefully, provide at least a subsistence wage so you don't find yourself greeting customers at Wal-Mart or holding a cardboard sign at a freeway onramp on your 70th birthday.
Compare that program with voluntary private retirement vehicles, like your 401K. For years the right touted the superiority of that vehicle to the social security program, but the falacy of that argument has become patent. Look at the poor schmucks who invested in ENRON and WorldCom...the employees who took wages in the form of stock options, or just bought stock believing that the company's balance sheets were accurate and as represented in their prospectus.....corporate pirates perpetrated a fraud that robbed them of their wealth and crippled their potential for retirement.
But still the victim was blamed. Diversify your portfolio...diversify your risk...was the advice of those on the right. So we did. And then we watched that wealth disappear and disappear for the same reasons...greed, fraud, bad business practice and horrible government oversight, which turned a blind eye to the greed based piracy taking place under its nose. I know it didn't go unnoticed here that most of this malfeasance was, ironically enough, brought to U.S. by the very advocates of the private retirement system. In other words, they made the argument for the superiority of their system, scared U.S. into investing in it, then stole our money....again. Worse, they tried to rig the interest rates and bankruptcy laws to ensure we could never escape.
Now I'm no socialist. But I believe in social security for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the government made a promise to me as a boy...one that I've counted on since I was a boy. I've kept my end of the bargain and I expect the government to do the same. If that means a bailout, then a bailout it is. In comparison to those currently receiving bailout monies, I submit that folks entitled to social security benefits are infinitely more deserving. Second, social security is good public policy. Unless and until the GOP disavows its "unbridled capitalist" ideology, we will always be at risk of being lied to and robbed by greedy corporate pirates who have the money and pull to subvert the political process and undermine any institutional safeguards we may erect for our own self protection.
There are many other great reasons to save social security and even expand its coverage and protection. I submit that if we do not, if we let it die, if we let cries of "socialism" persuade us to destroy such social safety nets, then we will watch as generation upon generation of working Americans whose contributions to the growth and progress of this nation are incalculable, are forced to work until the day they die, or die begging in the streets.