There are two methods of government’s getting its way with its subjects. The first if force, and the second is to make them dependent. Make them think you are the issuer and provider of all that’s wonderful and good. Make them so dependent, that they can’t continue without government handouts, assistance, and largess…or at least think they can’t. FDR wrote the book on that one. FDR wanted people to love him, vote for him, depend on him and his Democrats, and believe that life wouldn’t be very good, or even possible without the rules, laws, legislation, handouts, protection, and bureaucrats dispensing such. Social Security is a classic case.
FDR didn’t originate it. It originated in Germany, over fifty years before, when Bismark made the observation that, “Whoever has a pension for his old age, is far more content and easier to handle than one who has no such prospect.” Note the word “handle.” Government “handles” its subjects, keeps them toeing the line, and paying taxes if they’re ’handled’ nicely. FDR decided that America needed handouts to keep the flock happy, voting Democrat, and dependent, so he and his commie buddies and socialist comrades came up with Social Security, and called it “insurance,” which it wasn’t. Did America need it? According to the findings of the New York commission on Old Age Security, out of 603,700 persons over the age of sixty-five residing in the state in 1929, nearly 90% were either self-supporting or voluntarily provided for by friends and families. Less than 4% of the states elderly were found to be dependent on organized private charity or public assistance.
In 1911, group life insurance was introduced, which provided protection for everyone in a company without any medical examinations or old age premium increases. Annuities were also around for those who wished to protect and insure their retirement years, as were ’whole life’ policies. Responsible people breed responsible children. Government subsidies foster and breed irresponsibility, slovenliness, laziness, and lack of concern for family, future and nation. Social Security followed the communist line of some people subsidizing others. “From each, according to his ability…” When this happens, and especially on an involuntary basis, as with the force of law, irresponsibility runs wild. Social Security, as opposed to actual insurance, is as different as night is to day. With insurance, policy holders pay premiums based on their life expectancy, health conditions, and other risk factors, which the insurance carrier’s actuary uses to set premiums, which are invested to generate profits and the ability to pay policy holders when due. Social Security taxes everyone equally, and was actuarially unsound from the beginning.
At the height of the depression, FDR and his Democrat scalawags passed the Social Security law, and fooled everyone by saying that only half would be paid by the employee, and the other half by the employer. Was there ever a larger hoax than that? The employer wasn’t going to pay ’half,’ because he just raised prices on his products to pay for it. In the height of the depression, even more taxes were withheld from paychecks, and as if that weren’t bad enough, no one who was having taxes deducted from their checks was to receive any benefits till 1941! If you were 60, and had the new Social Security taxes removed, you weren’t going to get any of this ’security’ till you were maybe dead seven year later. Naturally, the new Social Security taxes caused a decrease in employment because of the higher prices, lower sales, and fewer employees needed. In other words, Social Security didn’t benefit anyone during the depression, because no benefits were to be paid till after it was probably going to be over.
Democrats controlled the Congress by a two to one majority during this time. Less anyone think Social Security was ’voluntary,’ as the income tax is supposed to be, employers were required to post this sign in a conspicuous place. “Beginning January 1, 1937 your employer will be compelled by law to deduct a certain amount from your wages every payday. This is in compliance with the terms of the Social Security Act signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, August 14, 1935…” The final sentence is, “This is NOT a voluntary plan.” Money was taken out of circulation, when it was obvious that spending was essential for recovery from the depression. Abraham Epstein wrote in Nation Magazine, “Experience everywhere indicates that politicians will hardly be able to keep their hands off of such easy money.” American mercury Magazine described Social Security as a “gigantic slush fund.” Pro-FDR historian Robert McElvaine said Social Security was, “Important as a symbolic gesture to demonstrate that Roosevelt’s heart was in the right place.”
The depression continued, as has Social Security. There isn’t one thin dime in that ’fund.’ It is merely a tax which is added to the rest of the taxes we all pay, and every cent is instantly spent by politicians, plus hundreds of billions more each week. What is in the ’fund’ are government bonds, which are of course are, “Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government.” Government can give you nothing till it either steals it from you first, or prints the money to give it to you, which destroys the value of the currency. Either way, you get nothing.
If Social Security was unsound in 1935, it is a total absurdity now. With millions of jobs going overseas, not just for manufacturing, but even travel services, banks and credit card agencies, plus a host of others have even transferred their telephone answering, bookkeeping and billing operations to India. The Baby Boomers are retiring by the thousands every day, and pretty soon there will be three Social Security recipients for every contributing worker. Most believe they will never see a red cent of it, and keep paying those huge taxes anyway, because they have no choice. They will get their payments, because Helicopter Bernanke has said, ’the government has the power of the printing press.’
The above is just one more facet of the destruction of America, which began under the auspices of FDR, probably the worst American President of the 20th Century. An entire nation has been led to believe that they would be lost without government and the Social Security system. An entire nation has become dependent and weak, unable to save for retirement, even in declining dollars. The whole mental state of providing for ones self and ones family, thinking of the future, and planning for old age, has vanished. America has become weaker, thoughtless, and dependent…which is what FDR wanted. He got it, and we are all the weaker from it.