We've all heard the droning drumbeat: The Social Security and Medicaid Funds are running out of money. We have to raise the age of retirement AND/OR we have to reduce benefit payouts AND/OR we need to privatize the system or else they will go belly up sooner as opposed to later.
Of course, there are other EASY solutions to the problem...like raising the threshold to the amount of earnings subject to the FICA tax. But the one piece of information that those beating the drum the loudest don't want the public to ask is: Why are these funds supposedly running out of money?
Paul Craig Roberts puts this unstated information into perspective in an article posted at The Foreign Policy Journal.
Try to grapple with that number for a few moments. That's $2 trillion paid predominantly by the poor and middle class. That is money that we didn't put in our pockets in this period of stagnant wages. That is money we could have used to keep roofs over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs, education for our children and better health care for our families.
In exchange for not spending that money when we earned it, it was set aside for us to utilize in old age and/or disability. Each of us paid into the system, so it really isn't an "entitlement" at all. No, it is a mandated savings account.
And what happened to this staggering amount of moohlah? The government -- at the behest of the wealthy elite -- STOLE IT FROM US!!! Let's call it what it is: It's a case of grand theft.
And yet, while you and I are the victims of this massive theft, the powers that be want to exact the retribution from us, not those who masterminded the crime in the first place.
Of course, there are other EASY solutions to the problem...like raising the threshold to the amount of earnings subject to the FICA tax. But the one piece of information that those beating the drum the loudest don't want the public to ask is: Why are these funds supposedly running out of money?
Paul Craig Roberts puts this unstated information into perspective in an article posted at The Foreign Policy Journal.
According to the official 2010 Social Security reports, between 1984 and 2009 the American people contributed $2 trillion, that is $2,000 billion, more to Social Security and Medicare in payroll taxes than was paid out in benefits.I knew our government -- under BOTH Republican AND Democratic administrations -- had been siphoning off funds from Social Security and Medicare, but I had NO IDEA that it was this damn much!!!
What happened to the surplus $2,000 billion, or $2,000,000,000,000?
The government spent it.
Over the past quarter century, $2 trillion in Social Security and Medicare revenues have been used to finance wars and pork-barrel projects of the US government...
Try to grapple with that number for a few moments. That's $2 trillion paid predominantly by the poor and middle class. That is money that we didn't put in our pockets in this period of stagnant wages. That is money we could have used to keep roofs over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs, education for our children and better health care for our families.
In exchange for not spending that money when we earned it, it was set aside for us to utilize in old age and/or disability. Each of us paid into the system, so it really isn't an "entitlement" at all. No, it is a mandated savings account.
And what happened to this staggering amount of moohlah? The government -- at the behest of the wealthy elite -- STOLE IT FROM US!!! Let's call it what it is: It's a case of grand theft.
And yet, while you and I are the victims of this massive theft, the powers that be want to exact the retribution from us, not those who masterminded the crime in the first place.
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