Quote:
Originally Posted by dillywho
As to #3, you must be self-employed (and choose not to pay in) or not/never employed at all, if you think SS and Medicare are "free". I paid SS from the time I was 16 until I retired and then worked part-time and still paid on those wages. As for the Medicare, "premiums" are deducted every month just like any other insurance and between the two of us, that's a good chunk of what you consider "socialism". Check it out, put a pencil to it and then tell us we're getting something that you alone are paying for.
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I never said they are "free", nor did I mean to imply that "you", whoever "you" are, are receiving something you didn't earn, or don't deserve. They are examples of social programming, designed to ensure that a certain segment of the population that was once very vulnerable to finding itself without money, without healthcare, and without the means to support oneself.
As for me, I have been employed since I got out of school, 32 years now. I have "contributed" the max every year. The likelihood that I'll get out of the system what I've been forced, by law, to put into the system is very small.
Nevertheless, I still think this country is a better place for having done something to make sure that people too old, or too sick to work anymore, aren't left with nothing.
When FDR was pushing the program, he was labelled a socialist. And it was an accurate statement.
Pure unfettered Capitalism has, as it's endpoint, the same result as a game of Monopoly. One player winds up with everything. Along the way, before the game concludes, the more assets the player amasses, the more the odds are stacked in that player's favor. The difference of course being that when you lose at Monopoly you feel relieved because you get to go to bed, but in real life you and the kids wind up on the street.