Youth Will Benefit with McCain: The Change Candidate on Social Security

If a candidate is running for “change,” this year, it isn’t Barack Obama. It’s John McCain. This blog will take up this theme of “real change” issue by issue over time, through November. For today, the subject is Social Security.

Obama has no plan for reforming Social Security, which is really nothing more than a bogus pyramid scheme by the federal government. Since it’s inception, the government has taxed younger workers to pay the benefits for current retirees. There is no arguing about it. You have to pay these taxes, and when I look at my paycheck, 6.2% of the income I earned this week (and every week) is going towards social security. Now, I don’t want to get into how much I make, but let’s just say that 6.2% is a lot of money for me to pay for someone else’s retirement.

If I took that same 6.2% and I had the option of putting it into a standard, conservative 401(k) plan, I could get a lot more bang for my buck when I retire, more than the government promises to pay me, if social security is still around then (I’m not counting on it, and have set up my own retirement account). However, the government doesn’t even give me the option to take that money and invest it myself. Many companies will even give their employees a retirement fund or match what they put in, allowing them to earn way more interest than the government. In fact, the government is running a trillion dollar deficit in its entire budget. Much of that is due to social security, which soaks up so much funding.

Regardless of how much someone makes in their income, whether it is $50K, $100K, or $1 million a year, the government still sets aside a social security account for them, paid for by current workers, making far less money. This doesn’t make sense and this kind of system cannot last forever.

One well-to-do retiree in Palm Beach, FL put it to me this way: he has a nice house, lives on a golf course, and is set for life. He still gets his social security check from the government. He looks out on the golf course during it’s off-peak hours and sees legal Mexican immigrants working on his golf course, probably for a meager salary. Those younger workers, who are just making ends meet, are forced by the government, to subsidize the retirement of people who are sitting around hitting the golf balls all day. Something about this system just doesn’t make sense.

John McCain finally called it a “disgrace” this week. He said, “It’s an absolute disgrace, and it’s got to be fixed.” Reforming social security: now, that is change I can believe in.

For more facts on social security and how we can reform it by giving younger workers more options with their own money, please visit: http://www.socialsecurity.org/