Monday - January 24, 2005

Why Social Security Reform Will Fail

Why Social Security Reform Will Fail

Unless there is a concerted effort to undo decades of government brainwashing by campaigning to convince people their future belongs to them, any effort to privatize social security is doomed to failure.

We can start with a VERY short letter to all our congress-critters:  “I demand the right to determine where my social security contributions go.  It is MY money and I want to take ownership of it.” Simple as that. 

But, as Neal Boortz points out at his site today, there are too many people who love the nanny state and really want nothing to do with the “freedom” that taking responsibility for their own actions will mean to them.

Since his page changes daily but the address is the same, I’ve copied it here for you to read.  He started out with a discussion of President Bush’s inauguration speech focusing on freedom and continued thusly:

What is the problem with freedom?  I think that the biggest problem is that people realize that along with personal freedom comes personal responsibility.  To be sure, Americans will say nice things about freedom ... right up until the time that personal responsibility rears its ugly head.  Freedom of speech?  Sure, that takes no real effort.  Freedom of religion?  No problem there.  It doesn’t really require you to actually do anything.  Introduce responsibility and consequences for irresponsibility, and the love of freedom suddenly wanes.

I saw a good example of the limited American love affair with freedom yesterday on CNN.  Three women from three generations were being interviewed; grandmother, mother and daughter.  They were being questioned on President Bush’s privatization plans for Social Security.  The grandmother was against it.  She said that this would be like the government teaching people to gamble.  She equates investing in the stock market to gambling, and has decided that it is wrong.  Let the government take your money, and then dole it out to you later.  Now that’s just fine.

The daughter was particularly troubling.  On the one hand she said that she had no confidence at all that there were going to be any Social Security benefits for her when she reached retirement age, whatever that retirement age might be.  On the other hand she said that she wasn’t in favor of privatization because she didn’t want to have to go to the trouble of making decisions on how her retirement money should be invested.  She would just rather have the government do it for her.

More examples?  They’re not difficult to fine.  Just go to the basic levels of our society.  Should you be free to negotiate with an employer on the basis of salary?  No ... we need a minimum wage.  Should you be free to buy a health insurance policy that doesn’t include pregnancy benefits?  No .. the government stands in the way.  Should you be free to chose who is going to come into your home and tell you what drapery fabric would look good with your throw pillows?  No.  The government tells you who you can and can’t hire for that job.  Do people complain?  Do they protest?  Not a bit.  Just accept the government controls and regulations and move on.

There is another troubling aspect of our lost love for freedom.  When freedom isn’t cherished people are opposed to paying a price to make freedom secure.  The United States is trying to introduce freedom into the heart of the tyrannical Arab World.  As in the past, people are dying in the effort.  Now we have people saying that it’s peace, not freedom that matters.  That might sound good until you realize that by “peace” they simply mean the absence of armed conflict.  Tyranny?  Fine.  Not even the most basic of freedoms?  No problem ... as long as there’s peace.  Today an astounding number of people, principally on the left, believe that peace without freedom is just fine, thank you very much.

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler     on 01/24/2005 at 07:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Politics • Social-Security •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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