On January 21, 2013, Sam Stein writes in the Huffington Post:
President Barack Obama revived a 2008 campaign promise on Friday, telling the crowd at an AARP forum that he would be open to raising the level of income on which Americans pay Social Security taxes.
“You know, I do think that looking at changing the cap is an important aspect of putting Social Security on a more stable footing,” Obama said, via satellite feed. “And what I’ve said is, is that I’m willing to work with Republicans and examine all their ideas, but what I’m not going to do, as a matter of principle, is to slash benefits or privatize Social Security and suddenly turn it over to Wall Street — because we saw what could happen back in 2008 and 2009 when the stock market crashed, and we are still recovering from that.”
Social Security is funded with a tax, not with “contributions.” It’s not a savings plan or an investment. It’s redistribution, pure and simple. Payments do not depend on what you paid in to the system, but on what politicians decide you should get. The first person to receive Social Security was Ernest Ackerman, who received a lump-sum distribution of (hold on to your hats) 17¢ in 1937. The first person to receive monthly payments was Ida May Fuller, who received regular monthly payments starting at a little over $22 from January 31, 1940 to her death in 1975, having paid in to the system for three years, getting 35 years of benefits.
In any event, the unfunded liability for Social Security, Medicare, and the prescription drug program are projected to be just a trifle more than any government on earth could possibly pay in the foreseeable future.
The real solution to this situation is not to demand more and more benefits from the State as a right, but to demand that the government start protecting and maintaining the rights we actually have to life, liberty, and property. This can be done by enacting a Capital Homestead Act at the earliest possible date. Only implementing an aggressive program of expanded capital ownership for every single American as soon as possible and making Social Security, the prescription drug program, and Medicare means based is it possible to have a realistic hope that we can not only salvage something from the wreckage, but actually prosper.
Social Security should be what it was originally intended to be: a means-based social safety net, with the bulk of retirement income coming from “Capital Homestead Accounts”:http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/21/obama-social-security_n_1903773.html
