Wednesday, December 14, 2016

So You Don't Like Welfare, Huh?

1935 - A time when the USA still promised to redeem dollars in gold (internationally but not domestically). It was critical then for the government to limit the country's money supply to an amount that did not exceed by too much the amount of gold it owned. Defaulting on its promise to redeem dollars with gold could have brought the entire monetary system down and taken the economy and the country with it. To limit the money supply, the government systematically destroyed dollars by taxing the people.

In that year, 1935, President Roosevelt and Congress concocted a federal welfare program called Social Security (actually it was called The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Act) in which people of retirement age, and some others, could recieve money from the government in an amount based on what their working salaries had been. But Roosevelt and Congress had a problem. They knew that Social Security expenditures would increase the money supply well beyond the amount of gold on hand. They knew that they would have to raise taxes to drain enough money from circulation to keep the money supply in check. But they also knew the people of the US would not stand for higher taxes. Then one of them had a brilliant idea. He said "Hey. Instead of just raising taxes, suppose we taxed a percentage of payroll dollars and instead of calling it a tax, let's call it a contribution. Then the people will think they are actually paying for their own retirement plans. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha." "Good one!" said Roosevelt. "Let's go with that." And they did. Ever since then we have been thinking that the payroll tax we pay is not a tax at all, but a contribution to our Social Security accounts.

In 1971 the US abandoned the gold standard and it has not been necessary or advisible to limit the money supply so severely. Even though taxes have not been necessary since 1971, the payroll tax has remained and continued to drain dollars from the people and the economy. People have continued to be fooled that they were actually contributing to their Social Security accounts and they stand ready to fight if told that their Social Security is, in fact, a form of federal welfare..

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