Posted by
Tim Schieferecke on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 12:41:08 PM
Once upon a time during the Roman Empire, a soldier could count on one thing. After 16 years of service to king and country, and 4 years of inactive reserve, his retirement would be forthcoming. No longer would he have to risk life and limb, shed blood, sweat, or tears, or march the phalanx for Rome's victory. He could settle down for the rest of his life and live off the pension he had rightfully earned.
Flash forward to 1935 and the well meaning but naive utopianite FDR, and we find the inception of the naive and utopian Social Security Program. The actuaries that developed the plan reckoned an average dependence on benefits of less than 5 years between retirement and death, and couldn't have imagined our modern longevity. Neither would they have imagined how their plan to establish a safety net would be twisted throughout the years and sacked and pillaged by our congressional Huns to pay for bridges to nowhere, Woodstock museums, and add your own worthless, pandering government program here needs.
The idea of the Roman soldier gave me an idea about Social Security, although it's the paradoxical antithesis of a retirement after only 16 years. What I propose and freely give as an idea to any well organized group to run with is the Keep It! Foundation. What I suggest is a grassroots organization that promotes the idea of payroll tax exemption for any individual who voluntarily gives up their "right" to Social Security benefits after they have paid into the system for a period of 16 years. After 16 years, the individual and his/her employer would be exempt from payroll taxes for that individual. The person could gain freedom from indentured servitude, and the employer would have a valuable incentive to hold onto aging workers that could also have ramifications in bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. The new-coming worker could decide to forego benefits and be locked into the prevailing payroll taxrate for the duration of his/her indentured servitude. In this way, the individual's pursuit of happiness could be attained, free from the duress of an overbearing, out of control government ruled by the tyranny of false compassion and the socialistic proclivity to make almost everything worse.
I posited this idea to some friends and aquaintances, and their initial response was shocked anger. "I'm not giving up all that money!" "I've paid into that system a long, long time, and I'm going to get what's coming!" This was the response I got almost to a person, but when I pointed out that the system is almost insolvent already, they started to shake off their initial protective, sometimes insulting responses to me. When I pointed out that payroll taxes will necessarily have to be increased dramatically, most started seeing my point of view. This system is wrecked and can't be fixed. I say we who are already half way through our careers, or those just starting out be given the option to opt out after 15 - 16 years. If you want to stay in, so be it, but know the burden of supporting Socialist Security rests squarely on your indebted, dependent shoulders. With just the money saved and invested from the payroll taxes in the last half of a career, a person would be able to live much better (have more money to spend) than a person who contributed to the Socialist Security scam their entire working lives.
Assuming you can shake the initial entitlement anger of freely giving up half a career's Social Security contributions, try asking your friends and aquaintances the same question. Expect a lot of initial anger and resistance, followed by a sober realization of the Keep It! idea's merit. I remember some milk toast, namby pamby poster while growing up that said "if you love something, let it go. If it never comes back to you, it wasn't meant to be." In the case of Socialist Security, I think it would be more appropriate to say, "if you love yourself and your family's future freedom, let Social Security go, if you never have to pay into it again, you can achieve the dignified freedom you're meant to have!"