mahoney@bach.DEC (Toto I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.) (11/12/85)
Many people on this net have been attacking Social Security because they see
it as social spending they say that it is not a pension.
Pension -- fixed sum paid periodically to a retired or disabled person,
or to the surviving dependents of one who died in service.
From the Scribner-Bantam English Dictionary
Now from my point of view this is exactly what Social Security does. It does not
specify how the money is gotten or who pays the bill. By the dictionary
definition then Social Security is a pension fund. I will not argue that the
system is set up incorrectly because without a doubt it is. I do not understand
why the Social Security system hasn't invested money so the investment will pay
the person like most other pension funds. Even with all of its problems though
I would not do away with it. People remember there are lots of companies out
there that do not have any pension plans at all. The companies are to small or
just to cheap. A friend of mine just had a company a few years back do away
with their pension plan. The company could do this because the company paid all
of the money into the plan. If this person didn't have Social Security at least
he would be screwed (He is now near retirement). Another person mentioned IRA's
and other nice plans. Let us remember there are people out there who don't have
the money to set up these nice little nest eggs. Not all people make lots of
money and can prepare totally for the future.
What I see as the problem with Social Security and Social Welfare programs
is mismanagement. I believe in the Social Welfare programs it is something like
60 cents of every dollar goes into administration. It is time for Congress to
sit down and not trim away dollars but start going after the waste. Something
that neither conservatives nor liberals have tried to do. Conservatives just
say cut and liberals say through money at it. It is time now to sit down and
say were is the waste and lets attack that.
With the deficit at the level it is at all program unfortunately are going
to have to take cuts Defense as well as Social Welfare. We have already seen
the waste in the Defense Department it is time Congress went after the waste
in the rest of the government also. The waste has built up from administration
to administration no mater what the ideology was. There is a neat little trick
that has been built into the system to create waste. If a particular department
does not use all of its allocated money one year it will lose it. That is not
so bad if it was for just that year but it will lose it for good. So
departments throw away money rather then take a chance of not getting that money
and more the next year. I do not understand why waste seems like such a sacred
cow could someone on the net enlighten me on this phenomenon.
Brian Mahoney
"If truth and justice are the American way
why do politicians run the government?"