DEAR EDITOR:
Every time I hear that half of us depend on half of those to let us have a financially sound life, I cringe.
Not that I don't want the ones that are financially sound to go broke for me because I have a government-sponsored pension and that I use Medicare. No, it is because when it is said that it is not fair for 1 percent of the people be used to support the other 99 percent, or that 47 percent of the people are living off of the other 53 percent, I always hear, tacked on to why it is the way to go, because I am on a government-sponsored pension and Medicare, I should not complain.
Wow, what a mouthful.
This is such a pathetic situation that we were put in. Social Security was a lifesaver. This program was created to help, yes help, and not completely support us in retirement.
Remember, the word retirement meant that as we got too old to remain working and we reached an age of at least 62 there was this monetary assistance to help support our lifestyle. Without some other financial means, Social Security alone could not keep us afloat.
Then, in 1965 or 1966, Social Security had grown to such a huge bundle that Congress looked upon this gift horse and envied its fabulous amount. A president also saw this bundle of joy and determined that there was so much poverty in the U.S., the bundle could pull us out of poverty and the "Great Society" was created.
Poverty would be a thing of the past. The large amount of people in the work force could sustain the bundle of joy indefinitely.
Then the inevitable happened - why not use so much of this bundle of joy to pay those who could not work for nearly any reason and put them on a system of welfare?
Yes, since the formation of the "Great Society" 46 years ago, according to some, we still are a poverty-stricken nation.
Are we really? What really is poverty stricken is Social Security.
According to some, this program is not broke because there are enough IOUs to cover all that was sucked out to be used for the war on poverty. Who holds the IOUs? Congress does.
The money from the life-saving program was put into the federal general fund. Many politicians think the general fund is to be used for everything and anything until it is dry.
Some congressman, not too long ago, said Social Security and Medicare were a ponzi scheme and he was sort of crucified. But anyone that knows how a ponzi scheme and a similar scheme known as a pyramid scheme work can mathematically see the impossibility of ever getting those at the top to collect even part of what they paid into. My generation may see the program to the end because of our age.
Patrick Liste
Girard