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New
THINKS!
(On our lives, times and fortunes)
By
Poppa Kelly
March 26,
2004
Issue # 2
SOCIAL
INSECURITY NOW!
Show me the money! Was the catch
phrase of a movie some years ago. Many of us who
have been paying into the Social Security and Old
Age Survivors fund all of our working lives would
like our Government to Show us the money! Now!
Wild West Sheriff Wyatt Earp of O.K. Corral fame
was alive in the year that I was born. When I was
age six, in 1935, President Roosevelt signed |
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New
THINKS!
by Poppa Kelly
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the Social Security law. Here are some insights I’ve gleaned
in sixty nine years.
In the beginning, Social Security was a government promise
that millions of Americans would find gold at the end of our
rainbow called Old Age. We weren’t promised a real pot of
gold. We were promised something akin to ‘the income that
the pot of gold would yield.’ People who paid into the fund
for a proper time and attained a certain age would magically
draw a benefit multiplied far in excess of what could be
earned by placing the same amount of money in a bank. That
story was spelled out in the big print. It was justification
for a tax on every working person and business in America.
Down in the fine print that politicians didn’t talk about
were some ‘terms and conditions.’
Condition #1 was: YOU or your PRIMARY BENEFICIARY
(Read wife) must live to a certain age as a precondition of
collecting any Old Age retirement benefit.
The counterpoint of that promise was the inescapable
Condition # 2: If neither you nor your spouse lives to
retire, and you die with no minor children, the money will
be divided among your peer group of survivors. Your heirs
will not get squat. Total forfeiture by
the many who die is vital to supporting the survivors.
Over time we have learned that politicians sometimes tell
half truths. In the Great Depression year of 1935, with
unemployment at 20%, Americans heard the good side of the
story, but didn’t study ‘the fine print.’ Without TV
anchors, no one gave us the ‘reality check.’ Namely, life
expectancy in 1935 was lower than the promised retirement
age. The Government made a promise to all it expected to
keep for only a few.
But once the promise of Old Age Social Security was made, it
unleashed the secret power of optimism. Millions of us, and
our parents, saw the hope of a few years of rest at the end
of a lifetime of labor. We surprised the planners of the
system. We lived longer. That caused the problem facing the
system now. Without enough Condition #2 total forfeitures,
the plan has evolved into our present condition of SOCIAL
INSECURITY.
As this political season heats up, some politicians may
promise quick fixes to buy your vote. Beware. They may not
address Condition #2, a law as inflexible as the Law of
Gravity. We would be wise to ask those who say differently
to explain how they can perform untested financial magic.
Wyatt Earp died of natural causes at age 50, so typical of
his time.
Next week we will examine alternate funding options. Please
remember, with Patriotism and Imagination, we can make
tomorrow better than yesterday.
Poppa Kelly
© Poppa Kelly 2004
Local editors may copy with credit to writer and source
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