Social Insecurity

You are being robbed. At this very moment, if you are a U.S. citizen working in the private sector, you are being robbed.

All rational people agree that we each have a moral right to keep the money we earn from our own productive efforts and for our own private purposes. Under the current Social Security system, we have no such private property rights. Under the current system, the U.S. government has given itself the “right” to deprive you of your hard-earned income and assets.

The U.S. federal government has done this despite the fact that it is our individual responsibility to provide for our own retirement needs. The feds are also depriving us of our incomes, while it exempts the local government at the same time.

If CNMI government employees don’t have to pay into Social Security because they have the CNMI Retirement Fund, why should those of us with company sponsored private 401 (k) plans and Roth Individual Retirement Accounts be forced into the system?

The Social Security system is immoral, and the CNMI government should renegotiate this oppressive matter with the U.S. federal government.

Let us consider some of the moral issues involved. Make no mistake about it, Social Security is immoral. It is immoral because “contributions” are forced; they are not voluntary contributions: individuals may not opt out of the system for any reason, even if they don’t need it. Secondly, the Social Security System is not a binding contract between the individual and the government.

The government could change terms at any time. They could change benefits, making them either too generous or too meager. They could change demands or requirements, making both the payroll tax and the retirement age higher if they so desire. If a private pension plan pulled the same stunt, someone would be arrested for fraud.

Also bear in mind that the individual essentially has no actual claim of ownership to his Social Security benefits or contributions. Unlike a private 401 (k) or Individual Retirement Account, the individual has no access to his contributions until his designated retirement age (currently 62). And even when the individual is eligible to collect retirement benefits, he can only collect an annuity income; he cannot liquidate his assets in one lump-sum payment, which he could do with an IRA.

The ultimate solution to the Social Security problem is a rather straightforward one: abolish it altogether and expand private retirement investment opportunities. This can be accomplished through a simple “accord and satisfaction.” Current S.S. beneficiaries could be discharged through one final lump sum payment, ending this entitlement program forever. Contributing members could take either one lump-sum government payment or a corresponding tax credit for their prior “contributions.”

We can choose to either live under the choking yoke of Socialistic tyranny or we can return to our sacred American traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice, of self-reliance and individual responsibility.

Personally, I am all for freedom. CNMI government: liberate us from the tyranny of U.S. Social Security!