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Thursday, December 27, 2018

The Truth about Social Security

By Bob Livingston

Another "most important election in our lifetimes" has come and gone. I've seen many of them over the years and all of them have something in common — politicians using Social Security to scare the people. This one was no different, with Democrats claiming that Republicans are going to cut Social Security.
Retired people are very concerned about what the government will do to Social Security payments. So, politicians love to use Social Security to get in office and stay in office.
What is the real truth about Social Security? I am going to tell you something you've probably never heard and never will hear if you listen only to the politicians and the mainstream propaganda media.
There are three sides to Social Security. They are: the government, those who pay in (producers), and those who receive payments (consumers). All three have a different perspective and different goals.
First, let's start with the government. The U.S. government has a serious problem with Social Security, and I hasten to add that the problem is not funding Social Security. Social Security is not funded, it has no trust fund, and it will never be funded. Government payments to Social Security recipients are no different from government payments for anything else. The government simply sends computer symbols to your checking account. You then spend the numbers by writing them on a paper check or swiping your debit card and passing them to somebody else. You don't have any money, only imaginary numbers called money.
Just about anybody you talk to is worried that Social Security will go broke. Let's settle this nonsense once and for all. The only possible way to go broke is to have substance as money — such as silver and gold — and spend it all with no way to get any more. We just agreed that money is only numbers which represent absolutely nothing. How can the government run out of numbers? They can create numbers until the end of time.
So, what is the serious problem that government has with Social Security? Government is concerned with the exponential growth of the retirement population. Our economic system will collapse if our population gets too top-heavy with nonproducing consumers. Take my word for it, only so much consumption can be allowed by nonproducing, consuming retired people.
Modern governments are very sensitive about consumption. The reason behind it is simple. Government is the biggest consumer of all. In some poverty-stricken Third World countries governments have already consumed all the national wealth, so there is no one left to produce and no one to buy if anything is produced.
The bottom line is that government will not, under any circumstance, let the Social Security system out-consume the government and the productive capacity of the country. Production must balance consumption. Since only so much can be produced, then it follows that only so much can be consumed. Consumption must be regulated, and this is the problem.
What will the government do? The government long ago started taxing Social Security. What does taxing do? Well, the American people believe that their taxes support the government. This is absolutely not true. Taxes of any kind have nothing to do with supporting the federal government. The federal government creates money through the central bank, AKA the Federal Reserve.
Remember the numbers we discussed above? Taxing is very important because it is a process of taking some of the numbers back. Taxes control consumption. When the government taxes your income or Social Security, it is cutting your consumption. The more government taxes the more it reduces consumption. The more the government consumes, the less it will allow the people to consume. So, government consumption goes up and your taxes go up to cut more of your consumption.
Remember, there cannot be more consumption than production, and the government is certainly not going to cut its consumption. If anything, it will just increase. So, you can expect that the government will tax Social Security more and more. You will hear political rumblings about taking Social Security away from people "who can afford to do without it," also known in political parlance as "the rich." This discrimination will be expanded. Next those "more fortunate" who have made the extra effort in life will be taxed more or denied altogether what they have paid in.
Consumption by the retired population will be cut and cut massively. The government will do what it has always done. It will engage in class warfare. It will play the "have-nots" against the "haves," those who have worked hard and saved. If you understand the philosophy of government and if you understand the economic system, what we have just said is easy to predict. You can count on it.
The cuts will come outright, or through some fabricated national emergency and in other devious ways. But they will come as the monstrous government consumes the national wealth. And it will come regardless of whether your politician is a "D" or an "R."
Another way Social Security consumption will be cut will be by raising the age for which people become eligible for Social Security, as is already being done. When Social Security began, people could receive benefits at age 65. But in 1935, when Social Security was created, the average life expectancy was 60 years for men and 64 for women. This means far more people were paying in (producing) than were receiving benefits (consuming). Many producers never saw a dime of their money. This is what government prefers because it allows it to consume more.
Now the life expectancy is 76 for men and 81 for women. So, consumption is beginning to far outpace production. Raising the age at which benefits are available forces producers to be producers longer and delays their ability to retire and become consumers.
So, the Social Security crisis has absolutely nothing to do with funding. From the government and the politicians viewpoint, the problem is how to reverse consumption from the fast-growing, nonproducing consuming people who get Social Security.
Also, the welfare medical system is now consuming far more than will be allowed in the future. The propaganda mills are already grinding about waste and inefficiency in the medical industry, and laws will be passed to cut Medicare and restrict treatment options.
Retired people will have to pay for more and more of their medical expenses, and some will become unavailable based on age and health status (death panels).
Any time the government and the politicians "regulate" your consumption with new income taxes or Social Security taxes, their purpose is to increase government consumption. It does not matter which politicians are in power. This is the philosophy and the plan of modern governments that create money through central banks.

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