Replying to a message of John Massey to Ross Cassell:

 JM> It is truly amazing to me that somebody like RS can't tell
 JM> the difference between social welfare programs and Social
 JM> Security.  I guess it's the "social" part that has him 
 JM> befuddled,  He should know that Social Security is an
 JM> insurance program.

Actually, Socialist Security is an insurance program in name only.  If it
had to run like a real insurance program (a) the premiums would be at least
twice and possibly three times what they are and (b) the benefits would be
less - much less.  Of course, if it had to run like a real insurance program
the taxpayers wouldn't have to bail it out every couple of decades.  2010
is the first year since 1980 (the last time Socialist Security was bailed out
by the taxpayers) that benefits paid will exceed contributions received.

Been discussing this in another echo.  My point is that after three to five 
years of benefits, one has exhausted all of one's contributions into the program
and all of the (theoretical) interest those contributions generated (the government
doesn't pay interest to itself, so any such interest is accounting fiction, not real
money).  Since most recipients draw benefits for longer than five years - much
longer in many cases (my grandparents drew it for over 20 years, and they died
30 years ago), the benefits they draw are paid for by Joe Taxpayer after they reach
that point.  I noted that I will exhaust my contributions to Socialist Security in
about 2012 and will then become a welfare bum - but since the world is going to
end in 2012 I won't be one for very long.

Note that nearly all government (and not just federal government) programs end up
costing far more than their proponents claimed.  The current Reason contains an
article on that subject.  When the politicians were trying to get Medicare enacted
they claimed the program would *never* cost more than $2billion a year; after it
was enacted they estimated that in 1990 Medicare benefits would cost about $12
billion (up by a factor of six in less than two years) - in fact the benefits paid 
in 1990 were somewhere around $95 billion (just shy of eight times the estimate -
and 47 times the original claim) and they're well over $110 billion today.

 JM> If it was run by any private business
 JM> would have been put out of business, but because it's run
 JM> by the government people like RS that seem to think that
 JM> they're entitled to it, whether they paid into it or not. 

Actually there are a LOT of people who are ineligible to draw Socialist Security.
Some people can opt out of the program (preachers, among others).  I don't think
federal government civilian employees are required to pay into it either (military
employees are required to - but you already know that ).

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