The Democratic Party is Anti-Freedom

Social Security Is Not A Sacred Cow
It's A Trojan Horse That Has An Achilles Heel

"See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime...It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder." The Law- Frederick Bastiat, 1850.

Not even President Reagan was willing to "touch the third rail of politics". Think for a moment about the magnitude of the symbolism and the power conveyed by that statement. It implies that Social Security has virtually become an impregnable suit of armor for every other socialistic program. Against the Social Security shield, is it any wonder that most Republicans or other conservatives seeking elected office quake at the challenge, "If he is willing to go after school lunches (or substitute the socialistic program of your choice), will your Social Security check be next?" Social Security has effectively won every battle for the socialists and then stood guard to protect every other socialistic program from any challenge. In effect, Social Security has become the equivalent of an invincible guardian for socialism much like the mythical Greek warrior, the seemingly immortal Achilles. But therein lies the opportunity to completely end socialism. Like the legendary Greek warrior, Social Security has a vulnerable spot, an Achilles Heel. In fact, there are at least three of them:

Social Security is a pyramid scheme, and like all such schemes it can be visualized as an inverted pyramid balanced on the point. Because it is so large and because there are so many people involved in its huge mass, it has a tremendous amount of inertia to overcome. But once tipped, it will crash like the albatross it is. Absent their Achilles, the other socialistic schemes will topple like dominoes.

Social Security is a mandatory program. Mandatory is the very antithesis of freedom. Americans who want their freedoms back must demand that Social Security become a voluntary program giving each person the right to choose whether or not they want to participate in Social Security. If Social Security is the universally popular and wonderful program that Democrats

believe, then Democrats should have no objection to giving every American a one time choice to opt out or to opt into Social Security. If Democrats are correct about the merits of this program, they should have nothing to fear. If Democrats refuse to allow making participation in Social Security an individual voluntary choice, the lies and the myth will finally be exposed for anyone to see. Every Democrat in every election should be faced with an opponent willing to trust every American to select their own retirement options until Social Security is a voluntary individual choice open to every adult American instead of a mandatory plan chosen by politicians in Washington. Let Democrats explain why they believe everybody should be able to vote to choose the leaders in charge of the country, but at the same time those very same voters can't be trusted to choose their own retirement plans.

At the request of the Secretary of the Treasury, Gokhale and Smetters determined that Medicare faces catastrophic funding shortages for which there are no realistic solutions that are both politically viable and economically possible. In contrasts, the financial and economic funding shortages posed by Social Security can be solved. The Cato Plan to voluntarily privatize Social Security based on every individual American's personal choice is basically sound and can be improved. It can be proved that the economic retirement security of all Americans will be improved by privatization and conversely, it can be proved that the retirement security of all Americans will be endangered by the status quo. This is not only Social Security's Achilles Heel. It is also the Achilles Heel for the Democratic Party. Stripped of their armor, the Democrats will have no defense for socialism. Without socialism, Democrats have almost nothing else to offer. Without socialism, the Democratic Party is a vacuum with no reason for existence.

It is no secret that the party that favors "BIG GOVERNMENT" is the Democratic Party. Every decision that government makes for either groups of people or for individuals is one less decision WE the people can make for ourselves. Growth of government is inarguably by definition the loss of freedom.

The Entitlements are government programs where government takes property from one person to give it someone else. There is absolutely no clause in the Constitution that gives this power to Congress. The Achilles for all of the entitlements is Social Security, a mandatory program. Congress has no Constitutional authority that allowed it to create this program, and in a "free" country it defies reality for Congress to be able to require the participation in its mandated retirement scheme as a condition for gainful employment in America. WE don't live in the Soviet Union or even western Europe.

How do we get rid of the entitlements? Make participation in Social Security an individual personal choice for every American. WE must continue to pay the benefits to every person already enrolled in Social Security who chooses to stay enrolled. And if FICA taxes to do not cover the promised benefits, all shortfalls must be made up out of general revenues to the government.

Those who have already paid in, but choose to opt out, should receive zero coupon bonds with staggered maturities based on their payments into Social Security or the benefits they have already earned. Once an individual elects to opt out, they get to keep the employee part of the FICA tax that would ordinarily be paid to the government, while the employer's half of the tax payment continues to go to the Treasury to fund current and future beneficiaries.

My guess is that everybody under 35 will opt out, those up to 55 may choose to stay in or opt out as they see fit. Most over 55 will probably stay in Social Security, but over three or four decades, maybe less, most Americans will choose to opt out and Social Security is likely vanish from the face of the earth.

Unlike Social Security, government simply cannot pay promised Medicare benefits. It is not economically or politically possible. Default is inevitable. Without Social Security as a protector, Medicare can be phased out completely in less than five years. The same is true for every other entitlement program.

Cheap labor has always been available throughout the world. China and India could have had booms such as they have been enjoying in recent years at any time in the past. Capitalism is the engine of economic growth. Capital accumulation and growth require savings and especially benefit from compounding. Social Security began in 1935. Every dollar ever collected under Social Security has been spent immediately. There has never been any savings or trust fund. And more importantly there has never been any compounding. If Social Security had been managed like a real retirment annuity the compounded savings available to fund American jobs would be unimaginably large. Who shipped our American jobs to China and India? The Democratic Party with its mandated Ponzi scheme that funds consumption instead of savings, compounding, and capital for job growth that would have allowed American workers to be more productive with higher paying jobs than any other workers anywhere else in the world regardless of the low wage scales elsewhere.

It is the "entitlement" programs that are the source of America's economic malaise. The outsourcing of American jobs that has been occurring on a gradually expanding scale is the direct result of the loss of compounding that has not occurred because of Social Security. It is time for every Democratic politician to explain to their constituients why Social Security is a MANDATORY program in a free country and why the Democratic Party wants to continue a program that exports American jobs to China and India.

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