From: Steve Davies (steve365@btinternet.com)
Date: Fri Jun 22 2001 - 09:48:28 MDT
-----Original Message-----
From: Samantha Atkins <samantha@objectent.com>
To: extropians@extropy.org <extropians@extropy.org>
Date: 22 June 2001 09:58
Subject: Re: Political views?
>Spike Jones wrote:
>>
>> > > Spike Jones wrote: ...the candidate who favored paying
>> > > down the debt was very nearly elected by his creditors,
>> > > the Social Security hordes ...
>>
>> Samantha Atkins wrote:
>>
>> > Huh? It is not the Social Security receiving folks who the are
>> > the creditors for the government's debt.
>>
>> My claim is that as soon as one retires, one becomes a creditor
>> of the U.S. government, for that government *owes* the retirees
>> their social security benefits. My case is simply that it is a mistake
>> to think of social security benefits as anything other than entitlements.
>> It is not welfare, it is not a gift. The money paid into social security
>> during the working years should not be thought of as a tax, but
>> rather a forced investment. The benefits collected after retirement
>> is the payback. So retirees are creditors of the government as it
>> pays them their money.
>>
>> It is in the best interest of the government to carry a debt to a
>> large number of voters, to ensure its own survival. The debt would
>> discourage revolutions against a government that owes a lot
>> of voters money. spike
Samantha Atkins wrote
>When said government spends most of the "investment" on its own
>gluttony and still goes trillions into the hole then I would
>think all the investors would have a large stake in revolution
>to toss out such rascals or at least be able to take the money
>to sounder investments. There are ways to phase out SS and pay
>of the creditors and even do so much more handsomely. So the
>existence of these creditors is not a prop to the existing
>system.
I wish I could agree with the last sentence. The trouble is the old
principle of "Always keep a hold of nurse for fear of getting something
worse". Most voters feel they would rather keep a hold of the (lousy)
entitlement they have from the government rather than risk a (much better)
hypothetical one. The voting power of seniors and the gutlessness of
political leaders means this will probably go on until we smack headlong
into demographic financial reality. Steve Davies
>
>Social security is an insult. I see it as reparations paid by
>the government to those it has robbed and cheated for their
>entire working lives.
>
>- samantha
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