Social Security

Social Security Demeans Workers

by Sheldon Richman May 13, 2005

We can thank President Bush for reminding us that Social Security is not a pension or insurance plan but a welfare program. He did that recently when he proposed changing the benefit structure to favor (even more) low-income retirees at the expense of the “better off.” Whether this ...

Why Save Social Security? Revisited

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 18, 2005

My article “Why Save Social Security?” generated so much email, both pro and con, that I thought I would share some of the comments with you, along with my response to some of the points made by them. Email supporting repeal “Please continue this attack to eliminate this ...

Social Security’s Malign Premise

by Sheldon Richman March 18, 2005

Take note of the sheer panic displayed by the left-socialist opponents of President Bush’s Social Security proposal. We can divine some significant information from that reaction. The president’s suggestion (no detailed proposal has been offered yet) would not give individuals anything like the control over their own incomes ...

Government’s Social Security Mess

by Sheldon Richman March 11, 2005

It’s hard to say how the debate over Social Security will turn out. Considering that the system rests on the three-legged stool of the welfare state — coercion, deception, and paternalism — it’s hard to see a case for anything but abolition and the individual right to control one’s ...

Why Save Social Security?

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 11, 2005

In their desire to reform or save Social Security, some advocates of free enterprise display a reluctance to openly call for the repeal or dismantling of Social Security or even to suggest that their Social Security reform plan would gradually tend in that direction. For example, the conservative Heritage Foundation, ...

SSA’s Response to a Request for Freedom

by Jean Carbonneau March 1, 2005

As President Bush tells the world, we have a new fresh air of “freedom” in this country. I felt it and so I thought I would act on it. I wrote to the Social Security Administration to see if I could get out of Social Security. Here’s SSA’s reply to ...

Why Trust in Social Security?

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 3, 2005

Isn’t a central argument among those who argue for the continuation of America’s premier socialist program, Social Security, that Americans cannot be trusted to voluntarily take care of the needs of their elderly parents? Let’s set aside all the nonsense about “I put it in and therefore I have a right to ...

The Socialism of Social Security

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2003

The crown jewel of the socialist welfare state in America is Social Security. Rooted in the socialist predilections of Otto von Bismarck, the iron chancellor of Germany in the late 1800s, Social Security is one of the most immoral, anti-family socialist programs in America today. It also perfectly embodies the American peoples denigration of the great God-given gift of ...

Morality Requires Choice

by Scott McPherson January 1, 2003

Welfare-state advocates like to pass moral judgments on those of us who oppose their leftist ideals of socialism, redistribution, and “economic justice.” Allegedly, we lack “compassion” and “sensitivity” and are “selfish” and “mean-spirited.” Therefore we are promoting a society without reference to basic moral principles — ...

The Social Security Fraud

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2001

Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill upset some people recently simply by telling the truth. He had the temerity to say that the Social Security Trust Fund has no tangible assets. It’s empty. Such candor is not rewarded in Washington, D.C., the balderdash capital of the world. One of those who got ...

Of, By, and For the People?

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2000

We live by myths. For example, most of us believe we live in a representative, constitutional republic (sometimes erroneously called a democracy). Everyone learned this at school, and the belief follows most people throughout life. If things are not exactly to their liking, they fall back on the ...

Bush’s Social Security Sham

by Sheldon Richman June 1, 2000

GOP presidential hopeful George W. Bush wants to let working people invest some of the money now taken by the Social Security payroll tax. The principle is sound. Money taken by the tax is not invested, but consumed. It pays benefits to current retirees, with anything left over ...