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I want my Social Security

It ain’t right. It just ain’t right, I tell ya. For as far back as I can remember, and that’s a long way, old folks have been whining about Social Security. They are constantly complaining about one group or another threatening to cut their benefits to the point that the only thing they can possibly afford to eat is dog food. Well, now it’s my turn.  To complain, that is, not to eat dog food.

I’m proud to be a baby boomer, one of the middle of the middle class, the ones toting the load for the rest of the country. But I’ve had enough. I quit! When I heard the President say that the Social Security system will pay out more than it takes in by 2018, and then be bankrupt by 2042 if nothing is done to “fix” it, I finally realized something. It ain’t gonna be there. Social Security ain’t gonna be there for me or for anyone under about fifty, for that matter.

Whether you are Democrat, Republican, Independent, or Green Party, we all can agree on one thing: Those folks up there in Washington can spend our money faster than they take it in, and to date, they haven’t had much luck in fixing anything. Heck! They’re still spending $600 for toilet seats. And we trust these people to invest our money and hold it for us in a private account until we retire? I don’t think so.

Social Security was never meant to be a retirement account anyway. Our system is actually based on brilliant scheme developed by the Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck way back in the late 1870s. Seems old Otto needed money from the citizens for a little war he was in, to keep the economy running, and to build his new palace. Probably had $600 toilet seats throughout.

Otto Bismarck forced his huge tax increase on the German people, but before he did, to sweeten the deal, he gave them something they had clamored for: security. Sound familiar? Read on; it gets scarier. He made it mandatory. Everyone had to pay into it out of their weekly wages. When asked why it was mandatory, he replied, “It is the state’s responsibility to take care of those who are disabled from work by age and invalidity.” (www.ssa.gov/history/ottob.html)

Initially, Otto Bismarck’s social security program set the retirement age at 70; it wasn’t till 27 years later that the retirement age was lowered to 65. It seemed to be a compassionate thing for the Chancellor of Germany to do for his people, right? Wrong! The average life expectancy of a person living in Germany in the late 1800s was around 50. To make his system work, the Chancellor was banking on the people dying off before they even collected their first check! The short life expectancy was the key to making Germany’s system work. Similarly, long life expectancy is the problem with our system. Americans are living much longer than ever expected.

With advancements in the medical field and the treatment of injuries and diseases that used to be fatal, older Americans are just living longer. Which is a good thing; my dad’s one of those older Americans. He works out three times a week lifting weights, twice a week he jogs two miles, and three times a week he goes to the gym to do aerobics. The bad thing is he’s got a bunch of old friends just like him. The way they’re going, they’ll live forever. I guess they really are the greatest generation. Let’s face it; they’re spending all of the money and ain’t nothing gonna be left for the rest of us.

Now I don’t know the best way to make sure we all get our checks when we turn 65, 68, 70, or whatever age it will be raised up to by the time I get there. If I did, I’d run for office. But President Bush has an idea: private investment accounts. But first he says we have to fix the system - give the government more of our money. What a brilliant idea. The “fix” of Social Security will cost all of us about 2.2 trillion dollars over the next ten years! Give or take a dollar or two. You know, 2.2 trillion dollars sure would buy a lot of dog food.