Is social security an example of a socialist policy?

[The Instigator]

Would John McCain eliminate social security?

[Annoyingcrate396]

With over 120 + Million in assets John and Cindy don't care...!

[Mogollon Dude]

Yes and so are taxes .

[Logan]

It is! People think that they have their own social security account there in washington. They don't. Every dime that we put into social security gets put into a big pool and paid out everyday. The money that we put in is not our personal money! It's everybody's money!

[Annoyed]

No, it's not. It started with good intentions. People pay into it and that money is there for them later. Now our country lets people from other nations come here and get social security even if they've never put a dime in. It needs an overhaul. If you want it to be used the way it was meant to be, tell the government you don't want people who come here when they're elderly to receive Americans' social security money.

[Rocket]

if the money i have paid into the SS system was invested instead of just sitting there i would retire with a hellava lot more then it just sitting there, even with the problems with the economy.

your argument that we SHOULD be a socialist country just makes people want to fight harder to stop it.

[The Planet]

John McCain wants to eliminate Social Security because he thinks middle class is defined as 5 million dollars a year income. He's grossly out of touch with the average person.

Yes it is and so are a lot of the programs that we've had over history including the WPA program that got us out of the depression that followed the 1929 market crash. Republicans who are complaining of socialism are ignoring the fact that our country has been a blending of capitalism and socialism for nearly 100 years. It's what makes our country one of the best in the world.

[Robin]

yes socialist security is part of New Deal, stuff that was dreamed up by roosevelt's marxist cabinet

i doubt that mccain would attempt dismantling socialist security

i would be all in favor of abandoning socialist security as a mandatory thing, i do not object to it being voluntary (something like buying treasury bonds with a set amt of paycheck)

i believe that it will collapse on its own, and not really need to be acted on in any event, but it will be less traumatic if done intentionally

[Ravenwolf_mn]

No.

Rocket, if the money put into SocialSecurity was invested there would be an excellent chance you would not a penny left when you retired. The stock market is a form of gambling, there is no certiany that you will make money, and there is a chance you could lose your shirt.

[Ravenwolf_mn]

Yes. Social Security is a government retirement program. If the government allowed you to take the money and invest it however you wanted, that would be private and capitalistic. Instead the govt. takes charge of that money and invests it for us. That is the meaning of socialism. We also have socialized police and fire protection, roads and bridges, public health (like vaccination of children, protection from epidemics, food and drug laws, etc.)

Republicans have always wanted to do away with Social Security, but it's a very popular program, especially with old people who are getting the money from it.

Before he was president, Ronald Reagan almost made a career of fighting against the Social Security program. Between the time he was governor of California and the time he got elected president, he went around the country making the same speech over and over, in which he said Social Security should either be abolished or made voluntary. But by 1980, when he was running for president, it was clear that SS was very popular, so he stopped saying that.

When GW Bush came to office, one of his main agenda items was to 'privatize' 1/6 of Social Security, to allow people to invest it themselves instead of giving it to the govt. Since SS doesn't go into an account, instead the money is simply transferred from people paying in to people getting benefits, some people asked him how he expected to make up this money in current payouts. He was never able to answer that question, and I think this is the main reason the plan went nowhere.

But under the circumstances as they are today, aren't you glad he wasn't able to put 1/6 of our SS funds into the stock market?