The infirmities of old age are realities we should all confront before our senior years.
The best way of doing that is not necessarily under a government security blanket.
Everyone fears the possibility that they or their loved ones will be left destitute by old age. The fear is real and promises of relief from that worry are tempting. The Social Security Program offered that promise over 60 years ago and has relieved millions of their worst fears. Now, the fear is back. The Social Security System is designed to fail. Not this year, perhaps not even this decade, but for anyone under the age of fifty, the money will be gone.
The Social Security System was not originally designed to support the elderly for ten or twenty years of their retired life. They only started after most of the elderly had died. Money contributed by workers has never been held, collecting interest, for their retirement. Every penny received has been spent. The current system is five trillion dollars in debt, requiring an 82% tax on our children to simply maintain the inflated promises.
There are two basic problems with the current system: income and outgo. Because income from Social Security taxes is simply dumped into general revenues and spent, there are no funds set aside for future generations. Because no politician is accountable, benefits are expanded at every turn and payments have have increased 20% faster than the cost of living. Politicians would like you to think that they are either generous, or able to create new wealth out of thin air. It simply cannot be done.
Citizens must insist on the truth from their elected representatives. Contributions must be secure from the annual whims of politicians; the money must be controlled by the people, not the bureaucrats; contributors deserve an honest accounting of their money; and recipients should be able to enjoy the full benefits of their investment.
The most viable alternative has been tested and proved over two decades in Chile and Great Britain. The program allows citizens to either stay in the current system and maintain current benefits; or chose to invest in private stock programs that earn actual interest and pay much larger benefits at retirement. The overwhelming majority have chosen the private alternative and enjoyed the benefits of true economic investments that boost the economy and can be passed on to their children, without taxation. I will work for an honest accounting and personal choice for true social security.
The incumbent 24th Congresssional District Representative government controls, has proposed an expansion of benefits and risky bureaucratic investment options.
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