{"id":31674,"date":"2012-08-21T05:53:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T09:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=31674"},"modified":"2015-02-07T13:34:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-07T18:34:07","slug":"three-historical-social-security-whoppers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=31674","title":{"rendered":"Three Historical Social Security \u201cWhoppers\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day, I ran across the text from an interesting little historical document<\/a> on the Social Security Administration\u2019s web site. \u00a0In 1936 the Federal Government published a short pamphlet describing the \u201cnew\u201d Social Security system.\u00a0 That pamphlet said \u2013 in plain, easily-understandable English – a few things that turned out to be . . . \u00a0well, lies.\u00a0 Big,\u00a0<\/em> big lies \u2013 think whopper<\/em>s good enough to make the Burger King proud.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

Since things on the SSA website seem to get revised periodically, I thought I\u2019d go also ahead and save a copy of this pamphlet.\u00a0 I\u2019ve printed that particular SSA webpage to a downloadable PDF file.\u00a0 It can be downloaded here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the first \u201cwhopper\u201d that jumped out at me.\u00a0 From the above pamphlet:<\/p>\n

The checks will come to you as a right. You will get them regardless of the amount of property or income you may have. They are what the law calls “Old-Age Benefits” under the Social Security Act.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, obviously that\u2019s not exactly the case.\u00a0 The SCOTUS says otherwise \u2013 see Fleming v. Nestor<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 Bottom line:\u00a0 if Congress says you don\u2019t get Social Security, you don\u2019t get it – regardless of whether or not you’ve paid into the system enough to qualify.\u00a0 You have no contractual right to \u201cyour\u201d Social Security – because it’s not “yours”.\u00a0 It’s a government benefit, and Congress can change the rules (or the benefits paid) any time it likes.\u00a0 It’s not something you own.<\/p>\n

The correct way to phrase this would have been, “The checks will come to you as an entitlement.\u00a0 But Congress will tell you how much you get, and can end your benefits at any time if they like.”<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the second \u201cwhopper\u201d.\u00a0 Again, from the 1936 Social Security pamphlet published by the Federal government:<\/p>\n

YOUR PART OF THE TAX<\/strong><\/p>\n

The taxes called for in this law will be paid both by your employer and by you. For the next 3 years you will pay maybe 15 cents a week, maybe 25 cents a week, maybe 30 cents or more, according to what you earn. That is to say, during the next 3 years, beginning January 1, 1937, you will pay 1 cent for every dollar you earn, and at the same time your employer will pay 1 cent for every dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. Twenty-six million other workers and their employers will be paying at the same time.<\/p>\n

After the first 3 year–that is to say, beginning in 1940–you will pay, and your employer will pay, 1.5 cents for each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. This will be the tax for 3 years, and then, beginning in 1943, you will pay 2 cents, and so will your employer, for every dollar you earn for the next 3 years. After that, you and your employer will each pay half a cent more for 3 years, and finally, beginning in 1949, twelve years from now, you and your employer will each pay 3 cents on each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. That is the most you will ever pay<\/span><\/em>. (emphasis and underlining added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gee \u2013 a 3% tax on the first $3,000 of income is \u201cthe most you will ever pay\u201d.\u00a0 Even adjusting for inflation and the fact that a dollar in 1936 is worth $16.48 in 2012<\/a>, that translates to a 3% employee tax rate on the first $49,440 of earned income\u00a0 – not the 6.2%<\/strong> employee tax rate applied to the first $110,110<\/strong> of earned income we have today.<\/em>\u00a0 (Yes, I know – it’s been temporarily reduced to “only” 4.2% until the end of the year.)<\/p>\n

Obviously that rather clear promise also turned out to be bullshit.<\/p>\n

Here’s the third \u201cwhopper\u201d \u2013 and it’s my personal \u201cfavorite\u201d.\u00a0 From near the end of the pamphlet:<\/p>\n

What you get from the Government plan will always be more than you have paid in taxes<\/span><\/em> and usually more than you can get for yourself by putting away the same amount of money each week in some other way.\u00a0 (emphasis and underlining added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, right. Ask most people retiring today if they agree with that statement.\u00a0 We all know that\u2019s total bullshit.\u00a0 The average guy or gal retiring today will get less in Social Security benefits than they paid in in taxes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh, and in case you\u2019re wondering, insipid<\/em>:\u00a0 the 1936 Social Security pamphlet doesn\u2019t say a damn thing about \u201cinsurance\u201d or \u201cpremiums\u201d; those words don\u2019t even appear in the pamphlet’s text.\u00a0 (The pamphlet does, however, sell Social Security as a de facto<\/em> national retirement plan.) The payments made to retirees are termed \u201cOld-Age Benefits\u201d; payments made by employees and employers are clearly identified as \u201ctaxes\u201d.\u00a0 Even at this early date, Social Security never called itself \u2013 or sold itself as — some type of \u201cinsurance\u201d.\u00a0 Calling Social Security \u201cinsurance\u201d is simply a bogus smokescreen used by those who wish to obscure Social Security\u2019s true nature:\u00a0 a inter-generational income transfer program, AKA welfare.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Probably because it’s easier to sell insurance than welfare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day, I ran across the text from an interesting little historical document on the … Three Historical Social Security \u201cWhoppers\u201d<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,188],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-reality-check"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}