Means Test -- Part I

I have a feeling that when it comes time from my generation to draw social security (should it really be capitalized?), it will be means tested. If I have substantial assets, savings, what have you, I'll be told to go to the back of the line. This is one reason I said that I'll Buy China this year with my 2% social security "windfall." If I save it for retirement it will only work to reduce my future social security retirement benefit...so my thinking goes.

This seems entirely plausible to me, means testing, or whatever you want to call "if you have stuff, you don't need it." It seems plausible because we are doing this today, just in different forms. Today, new hires into government/civil service/railroad/what-have-you will get a third the pension benefits bestowed upon the earlier entrants.

I intend on writing off all my twenty four years of contributions into social security, which will be forty years by the time I retire. I see it as nothing more than an additional 6.2% tax, that's all. This is regressive taxation, for as I save for my own retirement it will be used against me to fund the retirements of those who never did save or those who couldn't save. I indeed support our regressive tax structure, so this isn't anything different, is it? If I'm willing to accept that the marginal tax rate above, say $300,000 be higher than the first $300,000, why should it be any different regarding social security?

And if I decide to go out and spend my entire retirement in one year on Viagra, hookers and blow, then I can qualify for payments, because then I'll be needy.

Writing off future social security payments, "because I'm goddamn entitled to my own money, that's why!" isn't going to be tolerated by most Americans. The problem is that we think that once we pay taxes it's still...somehow...ours. Uh-uh. Nope. It ain't ours as soon as it's withheld. This flawed thinking shows up in myriad places:

"As a matter of fact I do own the road"
"California only gets $0.60 back from every $1.00 in federal taxes paid."
"I paid into unemployment insurance, I ought to get all that back."
"Don't ask what you can do for your country / Ask what your country can do for you."

We have to move away from the idea that everyone is entitled to their slice of that social security pie, and just because our government decided to assign mutual and exclusive claims to the same piece of pie we can't accept that it may not be available for us. We don't want to be the last one standing in the game of musical social security chairs. So -- real reform eludes us, and will continue to elude us, and consequently we will someday get to watch the whole housal unit of cards come crashing down because all of us continue to resist any change that might reduce our share.

We won't voluntarily do it. But why should we volunteer? Just because I write it off doesn't mean I'm volunteering it away No! I mean that I ain't gonna get it, that simple. Nothing will be available to me as everyone before me couldn't accept the idea that "I paid into it, it's my share" only works if your share hadn't earlier been fuckered away by our government for multiple wars, automobile maker bailouts, shovel-ready transportation projects, endless unemployment checks, homeland security, imported oil, Medicare Part D, on and on and on and on. It will be extinguished by the time I retire.

We want the services our government provides but we are unwilling to pay for them.