The thirteenth amendment states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” While the stereotypical slavery of plantations and railroads ended with the passage of this amendment in 1865, another form of slavery was introduced by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935.
The form of slavery introduced by FDR is technically called involuntary servitude. Involuntary servitude is when a person labors against their will to benefit another, under some form of coercion. By law, I am mandated to pay into the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program, commonly known as Social Security. A portion of every paycheck goes towards Social Security. Every paycheck, some elderly person receives 6.20% of my earnings. In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson added Medicare to FDR’s Social Security program. By law, I am mandated to pay into Medicare. Every paycheck, 1.45% of my earnings go to a sick, elderly person.
Social Security does not benefit me, nor does Medicare. Both of those programs benefit others. I work for money, and part of that money is stolen from me and given to people who didn’t plan for their retirement. What part of the Constitution gives the government the power to plan for all of our retirements? Lazy, leecher-like greed and a sense of entitlement is the only justification for Social Security and Medicare. In 2009, the United States government made $121 billion dollars from Social Security, and that’s after they made all the payments to the recipients.
You would think with a surplus of that much money we would see a break on our taxes, or a reduced deficit. What does the government need $121 billion for? Maybe the government wants to buy up car companies, banks, and other private businesses? What if we don’t want Social Security or Medicare benefits? You can opt-out of receiving benefits, but you’ll still have to pay into the programs. After all, a tax is a tax.
If we do not pay taxes, the IRS gets upset and we get in trouble, possibly fined or jailed or both. How’s that for coercion?
Social Security isn’t our money, it’s my money and it’s your money being used for others. In 2017 Social Security will start running on a deficit, and will continue downward after that. I won’t be retired by 2017. It is incredibly probable that I will never see a dime from Social Security, and yet I am forced to pay for the program. If people want to retire, they should start their own savings account. The government has no business enslaving all of us to pay for others. I am my only responsibility.
© 2010 Nate Phillipps
Showing posts with label social security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social security. Show all posts
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
So Sue Me
With the proliferation of lawsuits in recent years, it is difficult to imagine an issue one isn't able to sue over. The frivolous lawsuit was not starting in 1994, but it was given a push from a rare occurrence to an everyday undertaking. The lawsuit I am talking about is Liebeck v. McDonald's, where a woman successfully sued McDonald's because their coffee was served hot. Today, we have warning labels on everything, from coffee cups and lids, to scissors. The jury determined that Liebeck was only 20% at fault for the incident, and that McDonald's was 80% to blame.
Just like a trend or clothing fad, the act of engaging in frivolous lawsuits, against companies whose only fault is they sold their product to morons, caught on like wildfire. When I was a kid, we got into the habit of saying, "So sue me," every time we did something our friends didn't like. As a kid, I never really thought about why we were saying that, but now as an adult I understand. What frightens me is that most adults don't understand, and continue to sue for ridiculous things. Why are frivolous lawsuits so appealing?
Despite many people saying we are currently in the Information Age, I believe we are in the Entitlement Age. With Social Security, amnesty for illegals, welfare, mandatory health care, affirmative action, bailouts and an array of other government sponsored benefits, it's easy to see why everybody has a sense of entitlement. Nobody is willing to work for money, or to earn anything. They expect to be given things based solely on the fact that they aren't earning anything. Need is not something one can exchange for value. Unfortunately most of the government and population have bought into entitlement 100%, after all, it's 'free' money.
Not everyone has bought in though. I was sitting in on a trial in court, and it was a divorce proceeding, and the prosecuting was telling the judge that she was entitled to the defendant's financial records, going back as far as she liked, even before the marriage. The judge was an older man and said, "I'm here to tell you that you are not entitled to those records." So there are judges out there who still posses common sense, although I get the feeling that they are far and few between.
What can we do to stop the flow of frivolous lawsuits? I would suggest encouraging your friends to use their brains and to remind them that when they order hot coffee that it usually comes hot.
© 2010 Nate Phillipps
Just like a trend or clothing fad, the act of engaging in frivolous lawsuits, against companies whose only fault is they sold their product to morons, caught on like wildfire. When I was a kid, we got into the habit of saying, "So sue me," every time we did something our friends didn't like. As a kid, I never really thought about why we were saying that, but now as an adult I understand. What frightens me is that most adults don't understand, and continue to sue for ridiculous things. Why are frivolous lawsuits so appealing?
Despite many people saying we are currently in the Information Age, I believe we are in the Entitlement Age. With Social Security, amnesty for illegals, welfare, mandatory health care, affirmative action, bailouts and an array of other government sponsored benefits, it's easy to see why everybody has a sense of entitlement. Nobody is willing to work for money, or to earn anything. They expect to be given things based solely on the fact that they aren't earning anything. Need is not something one can exchange for value. Unfortunately most of the government and population have bought into entitlement 100%, after all, it's 'free' money.
Not everyone has bought in though. I was sitting in on a trial in court, and it was a divorce proceeding, and the prosecuting was telling the judge that she was entitled to the defendant's financial records, going back as far as she liked, even before the marriage. The judge was an older man and said, "I'm here to tell you that you are not entitled to those records." So there are judges out there who still posses common sense, although I get the feeling that they are far and few between.
What can we do to stop the flow of frivolous lawsuits? I would suggest encouraging your friends to use their brains and to remind them that when they order hot coffee that it usually comes hot.
© 2010 Nate Phillipps
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Taxes Feed The Broken System
The government is spending massive amounts of money. Of course, the government doesn't have its own money; it has our money. What the government does have, however, is a monopoly on force, which can be used against American citizens. One of the government's favorite channels for this force is taxation.
Nobody I know enjoys paying taxes. I enjoy it even less when the government is moving in a direction I'm not happy with, or spending money on programs I don't believe in. I'm paying into Social Security, but soon that will be bankrupt.
I also payed for people to trade in their cars to buy new cars at a discounted price with the Cash for Clunkers program. People honestly believed that the government was giving them money to buy a new car. The government may have given them the money, but you and I financed it. In the movie business, we'd be credited as producers. In the government business, we get credited as suckers.
When preparing your taxes, you need to calculate how much you earned, invested, etc. Nowhere on the form are you made aware of what your tax money is going towards. With all the money the government spends, and all the taxes they collect, you'd think that somewhere (and somewhere easily accessible) you'd be able to find what exactly they're spending it on.
Falling short of a revolution or complete economic collapse, I have a proposition to fixing taxation, as well as the whole of government. The solution? Allocate. When we fill out our tax forms, there should be a list of government programs, well, basically a list of everything the government spends money on. Next to each item on the list, there should be boxes. We, as citizens, would place a check mark in each box that was next to a program we wanted our tax dollars to be spent on. When the IRS received all the forms, they would simply go through and figure out what percentage of check marks each program got. Then, any program that didn't receive enough check marks to balance their budget, would be terminated.
© Nate Phillipps 2010
Nobody I know enjoys paying taxes. I enjoy it even less when the government is moving in a direction I'm not happy with, or spending money on programs I don't believe in. I'm paying into Social Security, but soon that will be bankrupt.
I also payed for people to trade in their cars to buy new cars at a discounted price with the Cash for Clunkers program. People honestly believed that the government was giving them money to buy a new car. The government may have given them the money, but you and I financed it. In the movie business, we'd be credited as producers. In the government business, we get credited as suckers.
When preparing your taxes, you need to calculate how much you earned, invested, etc. Nowhere on the form are you made aware of what your tax money is going towards. With all the money the government spends, and all the taxes they collect, you'd think that somewhere (and somewhere easily accessible) you'd be able to find what exactly they're spending it on.
Falling short of a revolution or complete economic collapse, I have a proposition to fixing taxation, as well as the whole of government. The solution? Allocate. When we fill out our tax forms, there should be a list of government programs, well, basically a list of everything the government spends money on. Next to each item on the list, there should be boxes. We, as citizens, would place a check mark in each box that was next to a program we wanted our tax dollars to be spent on. When the IRS received all the forms, they would simply go through and figure out what percentage of check marks each program got. Then, any program that didn't receive enough check marks to balance their budget, would be terminated.
© Nate Phillipps 2010
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