Many people aren’t clear on a key concept behind Social Security:

It’s a social insurance program, not an investment program.

I had close dealings with people filing for Social Security benefits for many years. The most common complaint I heard–though I suspect this has changed since the stock market nose-dived–was from successful people, who complained how much better they could have done if they’d been allowed to keep and invest their Social Security contributions.

I generally got an angry look when I explained their FICA was actually an insurance premium. It insured against the risk of abject poverty in old age, or early loss of work ability due to incapacitation. It insured both the income earner and that earner’s dependents, which were also insured in the event of the earner’s early death. It was mandatory because such an insurance scheme wouldn’t work unless it was extended to the entire working population.

It didn’t generally help to point out that most workers eventually recover more than the premiums they’ve paid.

Nor did it help to point out that the Social Security Administration manages public funds in a highly cost-efficient manner. Far more efficiently than any private concern manages private money.

It’s a mindset. People holding it generally didn’t seem to realize how fortunate they were not to have worked hard through a lifetime and ended up with little to show for it but their arrival at old age.

They used to tell me
I was building a dream.
And so I followed the mob
When there was earth to plow
Or guns to bear
I was always there
Right on the job.
They used to tell me
I was building a dream
With peace and glory ahead.
Why should I be standing in line
Just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad
I made it run
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad
Now it’s done
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower up to the sun
Brick and rivet and lime.
Once I built a tower,
Now it’s done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits
Gee we looked swell
Full of that yankee doodle dee dum.
Half a million boots went sloggin’ through hell
And I was the kid with the drum!
Say don’t you remember?
They called me Al.
It was Al all the time.
Why don’t you remember?
I’m your pal.
Say buddy, can you spare a dime?

It always makes me cry.

Some people actually worked hard their whole lives for the American dream, but family illness, medical bills and who knows what all got in the way of their having a comfortable retirement so they can ‘travel around the world.’ Some people worked very hard and honorably but they didn’t get paid a huge salary for what they did.

Some people couldn’t LIVE without their Social Security benefits — that they earned, paid into and were told they had a right to expect.

Eight million stories in the naked city. There are many people out there in this situation.

I fear the current “Dust Bowl” will be defined as a lack of imagination. It is disturbing, but not unexpected, that fear is being used by BO and his minions.

I have been reading a lot of forums and its unbeievable the amount of twit out there who have no clue what SS and Medicare are all about. They seem to think that the elderly and the disabled are rolling in dough.