Paul A. Drockton
March 23, 2010
The history of healthcare in America is a sordid one at best, and scandalous at least. Consider the following:
1. The Social Safety Net did not exist for the most part prior to the last Great Depression. It wasn’t necessary because the family, Church and community took care of their own. Three generations often resided under one roof and homeopathic medicine was the primary treatment for most maladies. Prior to 1929, half of Americans lived on the farm and half in the cities. People took care of their own.
2. Today, 97% of Americans live in an urbanized setting. We no longer grow our own food. The nuclear family, let alone the extended family, no longer exists in most cases. Most of our Churches have become dysfunctional and our communities have grown morally bankrupt.
3. FDR passed Social Security Legislation as part of his “New Deal” legislation in the 1930s. Originally, it only paid out retirement benefits when an individual lived longer than the life expectancy of most Americans.
“When Social Security was launched 70 years ago Sunday, it was meant to be a supplement for retirees, not a full pension. But today, 10.6 million people, or 22% of the 48 million who will receive Social Security benefits this year, live on that check alone, the Social Security Administration says…AARP, the senior advocacy group, says 25% of retired women, including 46% of unmarried Hispanic women, have no income beyond Social Security. AARP also says 33% of retired African-Americans live on Social Security alone.
Those numbers could grow as the baby boom generation enters retirement. Currently, 53% of people in the workforce have no pension, and 32% have no savings set aside for retirement. The number of traditional pension plans — the kind that guarantee a set amount of money for life and that have propped up many of the pre-boomer generation — has fallen to 29,651 in 2004 from 112,208 in 1985…The average Social Security payout is $955 a month, $11,460 annually.” (source)
Social Security is grossly underfunded without any reserves. Contrary to what most people think, all current Social Security obligations are paid for with borrowed money an current tax obligations. Employers pay 7.65% of the employees payroll up to $102,000 (6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare). The employee pays the other half for a total of 15.3% of an employees gross income. The self-employed pay a simular tax, called the self-employment tax.
So, in essence, 15.3% of most peoples income goes into Social Security. Because of using that money for other obligations and not investing it, the program is for all intents and purposes, bankrupt.
This is not being helped by illegal aliens receiving Social Security benefits, or the current 20% real unemployment rate. NAFTA, GATT and multi-national corporations can produce goods and services in third-world countries without the cost of producing them in the US and Europe. In other words, it is not going to get any better.
Add to this the average male and female now live into their 80s and will receive benefits for 20-25 years and you begin to see the mess the politicians and their co-conspirators have gotten us into.
Now, think about this. There are an estimated 1,000 Trillion dollars in unpaid derivatives contracts out there. The trillions in bail-out money hasn’t even scratched the surface. The global economy is only 35 trillion dollars, so that gives you a small taste of the magnitude of the real problem.
This “health reform” law is nothing more than a political distraction, designed to take our focus off of the fact that:
1. The Federal Reserve Banking System has robbed us blind.
2. The national debt, most of which is owed to the Fed for using their worthless paper currency, has robbed us of our future.
3. One thousand trillion dollars in derivatives contracts will lead to a major debt default with hyper-inflation. Our creditors will use this as a pretext for war. Don’t believe me? Just ask Argentina what happened when they defaulted on foreign debts. They lost the Faulklands.
4. Illegal immigration, with little enforcement, has made our labor force even less attractive to many employers. We cost money. They cost little.
