Quote Originally Posted by pmetal
Why is it when someone wants to take personal responsibility, or wants to rely less on the government, that they are considered selfish, or greedy, with no regard to others?

So just because I want to keep more of my earned income, not just in my pocket, but away from the government, that automatically means I don't want to help others? Not the case. Not at all. But I understand that's the easiest argument to make.

On another note. 14% of my $70+k/yr and my wife's 80+k/yr, is quite a chunk of change, of which, if I'm lucky, I'll see 2% of that. Whereas, if I had that 14% in my pocket, I could invest HALF of it, get a better return and still have 7% to give to charities and whatnot.

But, that's just me. Maybe I'm just part of the "evil rich".
I agree with you, just so you know. I just want to see if I can translate cleetaneese to you.


SS is a collective pool and when you take out $$ from the top earners it takes away from the least in the long run. It was set up so that the majority of americans would have some sort of program to fall back on in their old age. So we could live in dignity. Well, dignity for the time it was created which meant a roof and food and not all the things we consider to be "needs" today.


It's socialist, but given the change in the make up of the family as we industrialized, the security of the elderly came into question more and more often. It's against our capatilist sytem, but it helps all of us in the end. It's a need, not an evil.