Please help me respond factually.
http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2010/10/03/opinion/doc4ca81ea17f1fd052453104.txtThe brokers in pillage
Published: Sunday, October 3, 2010 1:35 AM CDT
Paul Perry
Guest columnist
“The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.”
—H. L Mencken
H. L. Mencken was a 20th century writer who is sometimes referred to as the sage of Baltimore and who occasionally hit upon some major truths. No one is perfect, and Mencken would have been the first to admit that he wasn’t, though some of his comments still have a bite today. I believe both of the major political parties are full of the type of men and women of whom Mencken spoke in his quip.
A question: Why do we elect so many who are primarily self-serving? What does that say about us, the voters? I watch some C-SPAN, a little CNN, some FOX, and, when I am willing to go out there for a fringe opinion, I turn on MSNBC in order to catch that vacuous leftist Keith Olbermann. After taking in all that media, I am left with one conclusion: A majority (I’m not sure how large it is) of our incumbents don’t give a whit about thee and me.
They also do not want us to understand what is going on in Washington or Austin – where Mencken’s A gets looted to satisfy B. Where “government is a broker in pillage.”
Good honest arguments could be had about Social Security, for instance. When it was started, most people, due to the medical technology of the time, were not expected to live to be old enough to collect it. The self-financing stipend was never supposed to finance retirement. It was for groceries. It was by design supposed to keep people from going hungry and little else.
That is how it started out. FDR saw it as a means to prevent starvation. It has evolved into the primary retirement program for many, perhaps most, Americans. Politicians, who in Mencken’s words, have “no special talent” have encouraged that type of thinking. It is a tax on your income, half of which is deducted from your gross income by your employer before you ever see it. Unless you are self-employed, you never see exactly what you are paying.
Now, SS is no longer self-financing. It is no longer a forced savings program. It has become a transfer payment between generations. Social Security is so mismanaged by our government that your SS taxes no longer fund your own benefit. Retirees’ income is now partly dependent upon the payments of those still working.
Yes I know, many of us receive those nice little highlighted statements in the mail featuring how many quarters we have worked and what our benefits will be. While our benefits may vary based upon those variables, without the subsidy paid to Washington by younger workers, those benefits would be paired.
In order to finance the public’s expectation, Social Security tax has steadily increased. It is taking an ever-increasing bite out of Americans’ incomes. This leaves the average worker less and less to finance his own savings and investment. Should the program be scuttled? That would not be fair for those who are in the program. That would be devastating.
What about those who are paying into the program but currently receive no benefits? It is fair to debate that question. Should you be able to opt out? Maybe. That is worth discussion. Those who are close to retirement age should have their expectations honored, but what about those who are younger and are paying into a program in order to fund the retirement of those who are older?
Is that even fair?
For a start, each worker should finance their own retirement payments with a truly segregated account, through their own wages, and not gain a subsidy through younger workers’ taxes. That might be enough for everyone to take notice of the benefits or lack thereof and encourage an honest debate as a nation.
Paul D. Perry is a contributing columnist for the Daily Light. He is a local businessman and mediator and a former Ellis County justice of the peace.