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 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
