I think life was a little tougher then. I suppose you would prefer to have lived then? Unless you were an adult in those days struggling to provide for your familiy, I think comparing your woes of government thievery of your personal fortune today to the good old days of the Depression and its aftermath is a little unrealistic.

Social Security is another government funded program like the department of defense, or the commerce department, or any other department. All are funded by taxes. If you are a worker they take it from payroll taxes. No nice polite requests, it just comes off the top before you see the money. I am also never asked if I want to contribute my tax burden according to some "investment plan" where if I like bombs and missiles, I could send it all to the DoD, for example. Or if I am a Liberal sucker, I could give all my taxes to the Welfare programs.

All this *****ing about Social Security is being prompted by a group of experts at manipulating the working people's minds. They would love nothing better than to never have to pay any of the funds they plundered from the Social Security account back. A shake up of Social Security is attractive to them because they want this huge bill for the money they plundered to go away before the marker is called. The debt could easily be dismissed in the transition from Social Security to some other non-plan by saying over and over that Social Security was going bankrupt. Eventually people begin to believe it, so, when Social Security becomes "privatized" and all of the money paid in sort of disappears, no one will be shocked because their expectations were that the money was no longer there anyway. Now that would be theft of your wealth by the government worthy of your vigilance and attention. Somehow I detect you are already convinced you personally will be better off though. If you are young enough, and wise enough to save some money for later, good for you. Maybe you can hire someone to keep the diseased and dying old baby boomers off your property.

If you want to find Communism alive and well in the United States, look no further than the Defense Department and its procurement practices. The Congress rules over this process and neither performance, nor cost to the government are deciding factors. It is how many jobs and in what States, and who is the most influential Congressman or Senator that decides which contract goes to what contractor.

Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)