Social Security as Insurance

["Michael L. Coburn" <michael.l.lcoburn>]

Social Security (the system that cares for the infirm and
the dependants of the infirm, whether such infirmity is due
to age, illness, or accident) should be provided to those in
need of such funding.  This society as a whole must decide
what level of support it is willing to provide, and such funds
as are necessary to the provisioning must be derived from a
fair and equitable tax system.  The current system rewards those
who were fortunate enough to have really good jobs all their
working lives and punishes those who were not so fortunate.
The system is based on how much money the individual was paid
in salary and in no way does it reflect his personal commitment
to savings or his self denial of extravagant life style and his
waste or conservation of consumable resources.  Further, those
who were paid more had more opportunity to save and so have had
more opportunity to become the owners of the means of production.
These individuals exact a direct tax on the wages of current
workers and an indirect tax in the form of ownership income
(rent, royalties, interest, dividends, etc.).

A more rational way to fund SS is to fund it with consumption
taxes.  Such a tax could be assessed as a combination of excise
taxes at the point of origin (e.g. a fuels tax).  Those who
save for their own retirement will consume less and, hence, pay
less in taxes.  Those who spend all their dough will pay more
in taxes and they will in turn be supported in their old age by
new spendthrifts.  The government need not invest the money
for the individuals.  The government needs to simply encourage
people to invest their own money instead of spending it on junk.