Your Opinion: Response to Smith on Social Security

Dear Editor:

The disability portion of the Social Security Act is going broke. Social Security itself is good for several years. There is legislation because of the disability portions problems talk of combining the two which will change the whole equation. If the disability portion does go broke and is not combined with Social Security retirement it may only be able to pay the amount that it takes which would mean about a 30 percent reduction in payment to the disabled. If combined the number of years for Social Security retirement solvency is greatly reduced.

In Tony Smith's letter about Social Security he is greatly misinformed about how the system works. The money you earned is not the same money that you receive. The money that is taken from you and your employer is placed into the Social Security system which pays for your parents and grandparents and anyone who is retired. The money that you will receive when you retire will come from your children and their counterparts.

The system that funds Social Security is called the FICA tax. Because it is a tax you lose all ownership of the money. You trade the money for a promise that the federal government will pay you when you retire. This was defined in the Supreme Court case Fleming vs. Nestor (1960). To this point the government has lived up to its promise. Smith is saying that Social Security is not an entitlement because it is a promise that will be fulfilled by the next generation of worker.

Smith believes that all the money that he placed into the Social Security system was saved, earned interest and grew just as if it were put into a bank. Social Security was never intended for that purpose. It is a transfer of wealth from one generation to another. Has the system worked? To a certain extent. It has provided a meager existence to people who have nothing else. It was never intended to be the people's sole fund for retirement. The government only gives you an existence living it is up to you to take personal responsibility to have a comfortable retirement. In many of Smith's letters people who have taken responsibility and accumulated wealth are envied of their success and believes their hard work and effort and should be redistributed using the power of the government.