Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1950-02-03
Social Security
Commendable, But

pay Liz dS SOlldl SeCullly ldA q
maximum of $45 each year. The
employer adds to that another S45
as a maximum. The total of the tax
paid by employee and employer
will produce for 1850 about "a bill.
lion dollars Of which about 700
million will be needed to pay social
security pensions for the year.
We are encouraged to think
of the difference between the
amount collected, and the
amount paid out, 700 million as
a reserve fund to provide for
future social security pay
ments, but that is not the fact;
that reserve does not exist.
Congress has spent every dime
of the 11.6 billion dollars that
reserve is presumed to have
accumulated.
1t has been swallowed up in tho
wild spendings of congress through
the years since social security
started in 1885. It means that those
millions of Americans, both en-
ployees and employers, are, and
have been, paying far more than
the costs of social security, includ-
ing the excessive administration
expenses. Between the employees
and the employers they have been,
and are, paying more than an in
surance company annuity to pay
the same amounts on the same
conditions, would cost.
Should there come a year
when the costs, the payment of
pensions and the administra-
tive expenses Of social security
should amount to more than
the tax for the year produced.
the difference would not be
taken from that non-existent re-
serve fund, but would be voted
as an appropriation by con-
gress. 1t would come from the
United States treasury, paid
from the general tax levied
against all the American peo-
pie, as all other government
expenditures are paid.
The social security idea may be
commendable, but the method Of
operation IS largely fraudulent. It
has cost in the past only about half
the amount the beneficiaries and
their employers pay, and begin
ming with the first of January Of
this year congress has provided
for the collection of an additional
so per cent, with another jump in
the tax due in 1852. Less than half
of the money collected is used in
paving for what it was supposedly
collected for by the government.
1t is obtaining money, under false
pretenses.
Among the Christmas remember
ances I received was a card sent
BY friend living in New York
City. To that card was attached
half a dozen potato seeds. On it
was message suggesting that in
the spring I plant the seeds and
when, in the fall, the crop was
harvested, I report to the depart
ment of agriculture and receive
from the government my 1850
Christmas check.
With 1t came information to
the effect that in 1913 the gov
eminent spent. Of the tax pay
ers money, 1879 million dollars
to buy up the surplus potato
crop, plus "a million more to
destroy what it had bought. All
to keep the price of potatoes
the people must have at a high
prize.
In Arrowstock county, Maine,
the government paid an average
nf SIR nm 70 aooI e..
That, said the card. is a racket
much more profitable than any,
thing offered by the Irish sweep
stakes, and it is legal. To me that
card and its ironic content was
but an evidence of what the five
city voters to the one farm vote
are thinking of the taxes they paw
to keep the prices of food thew
must buy selling at peak prices.
My friend had emphasized his
opinion of farm subsidies. It
would be well for that one-to-five
farm vote and those who would
serve the farmers cause to take
heed of that opinion before the
five city voters take more drastic
action than merely sending ironic
NIl lSlllldS CdTuS.
-
A sample of selfishness: Be-
cause IF small profit made on
sales to $500 needless federal en-
plovees, merchants at Long Beach,
Calf. circulated petitions to their
representatives at WASHINGTON, de-
handing Hoover commission rec
concentrations not be effectuated.
The many suffer that a few may
profit in small way. but the many
fail to express their wishes. That
is sample of what is happening.
1t can be a short road to social
ism. but it will be a long way
back
That something for nothing
that looks SO enticing is, in
reality, but a mirage of the
desert.