September 19, 1973
The Social Security System is a cruel hoax on American tax payers.
It is not likely that young people entering the work force today will ever collect benefits.
Social Security is a gigantic chain-letter scheme that depends upon an ever increasing proportion of new contributors to retiring beneficiaries.
As we approach "zero population growth" - and we hit it for a short time last year - the over 65 age group will grow faster than in-coming workers. Then, the upside down pyramid of social security will topple over.
If this sounds alarming - it should!
A succession of vote-hungry, irresponsible Congresses has jeopardized what most Americans have come to rely on as a cornerstone of a secure old age.
The truth is that Social Security payments are already shaky and can't get more generous without serious strains on our economy. It may be too late already to save the system, but Social Security is too important to let it collapse through ignorance and greed.
The Old Age, Survivors, Disability and Hospital Insurance law - as Social Security is named officially - began in 1935 during the Great Depression. The primary aim of OASDHI was to encourage the retirement of workers so the unemployed could take their place.
At first, the U.S. Social Security System was, indeed, an insurance plan. Reserve funds were accumulated and saved in accordance with insurance actuarial tables.
In short order an enormous fund of cash - invested in U.S. bonds - was on hand. As we geared to fight World War II and tie need for cash soared, Congress moved the Social Security cash into the general fund. A secured annuity was replaced with a promise to pay out of future collections.
Official Social Security figures list its working fund today at $37 billion - enough for nine months of benefit payments.
Some critics contend this hand-to-mouth figure is over stated and the actual cash back-up of Social Security payments is nearer to nine WEEKS. They hint that the delay in Social Security payments a couple of months ago was caused more by a diminished cash flow as the federal fiscal year drew to a close than to a foul up in the computers.
Whatever the reason for delay in Social Security checks, the incident reveals the enormous danger of over extending the ability and willingness of American workers to subsidize their elders. Even liberal congressmen are worried and propose that future Social Security benefits be financed from general taxes.
So, the first hoax was discontinuance of Social Security as insurance.
And the second hoax is perpetration of the myth that present beneficiaries are getting back what they paid in.
Social Security will be the first casualty in the event of one more big war or one more big depression!
Back in 1935, workers paid a maximum of $30 per year into Social Security and the employers paid an equal amount. Benefits were described as "supplemental" to private earnings, savings and pensions.
The idea of "old age assistance" has enlarged during the last couple of affluent decades to "old age support."
Now, this is a highly emotional appeal - that our old people should enjoy their senior years at a high standard of living whether or not they have contributed very much to it.
This is humanitarian, but impossible.
In every election since 1950, Congress has raised Social Security benefits - and the taxes to pay them. It is significant that these raises occurred only at election time.
Since that time, the scope and cost of Social Security has skyrocketed:
The last election-year Congress was even more generous with Social Security beneficiaries, giving an immediate 20 percent hike, a 5.6 percent increase for 1974 and an automatic increase thereafter every time the Consumer Price Index goes up 3 percent.
A munificent gesture. But at the present rate, Social Security is expected to reach $250 billion in 1985. This will cost more than all the rest of government put together, including the armed forces.
Germany, Great Britain and Sweden broke under the economic strain of taxes in excess of 50 percent of national income. On the basis of their experience, therefore, we should reach the breaking point within a generation - unless we hasten the day with new social programs now proposed.
The time remaining for us to find a satisfactory compromise between "need" and "ability to pay" is short.
In 1950, 22 workers were contributing to Social Security for every person receiving benefits. Today only three workers have to bear the load for one beneficiary. The one-to-one ratio is only a few years away.
As payroll costs go up, employers try harder to substitute machinery for people. And workers grow unwilling to support non-workers.
A return to a fully-insured old age assistance program, under which workers will receive the fruits of their own labor, is a vital first step to real security.
Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at:
LinWms@earthlink.net
LinWms@lindseywilliams.org
Website: http://www.lindseywilliams.org with several hundred of Lin's articles written over 40 years, and his book "Boldly Onward," about the original explorers of America.