Social security insurance, oddly, provides for the preservation of the

Social security insurance, oddly, provides for the preservation of the rich

The United States is an odd integration of two opposing forces, the force of greed and the force of democracy. Greed fuels the economy and drives men and women to undertake risk and enterprise in pursuit of status, glory, power, and wealth. Capitalism gives full reign to self-interest and selfishness, relying on competition, struggle, and the appetites for growth, expansion, dominance, and for the acquisition of power and wealth. Profit is the guiding principle, the greatest good. All may be sacrificed for the increase of wealth. Others are means to this end, and justice is in the survival and dominance of the fittest, the richest, the holders of the golden ring.

The social effect of pure capitalism is to stratify society, to divide the people of a society according to their assets and monetary wealth. At the top are those with money, which is power, and at the bottom are those who have neither power nor wealth. In a capitalistic oligarchy, the rich hold political power, create the laws, and own and control the army and police. With few exceptions, such societies are governed to keep the rich in power and the rest enslaved to them.

While the United States still has those who would see oligarchy the rule of the land, oligarchy cannot succeed here, because the nation concentrates political power in the hands of the people, in the hands of the majority. Pure capitalism does not create a rich majority. The rich are in the minority. While their money may have significant influence on the people, they cannot buy the majority without spending the basis of their power. Having a common plight, a common economic condition, the majority rule the United States with their interest taking first seat. Having power in numbers, the majority of the people are able to make demands on the rich, in the U.S. commonly called 'big business'. It was in the exercise of this majority power in the 1930s that the people of the United States required business to contribute to the security of the aged and unemployed through social security insurance.

Business was held partially responsible for the wear and tear of societies members. It was President Theodore Roosevelt who first called on business to take up that responsibility, through the provision of health insurance for the working man and woman they had 'used up' and tossed on the heap of the broken, disabled, and sick. It took a Great Depression and Marxist revolutions throughout the world to put business on notice that the people would exercise their power and take from them what it would. Social security insurance arose as a balance between the people's power to confiscate and the capitalist's right to hold on to what they had profited. It was in 1935, under his New Deal administration, while the country was still struggling to overcome the Great Depression, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the social security insurance bill that required the employer and the employee to contribute equal amounts to the social security fund that would be used to cover the living expenses of the aged, the retired, the unemployed, and the disabled.

Social security insurance is funded by taxes on an employee's pay. A percentage of the pay must be paid into the fund according to the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) of 1954. The employee pays half the amount and the employer the other half. A self-employed person must pay both parts, but may reduce their net income by half the amount they paid into FICA. To be eligible for retirement benefits, the employee must have paid into FICA for a minimum of ten years. At 62 years of age, a person may retire and begin receiving the benefits of social security insurance. The ending years of a U.S. citizen will not be spent in degradation and misery.

Millions of people today are living on retirement benefits provided by social security insurance. Millions are able to live above the poverty level while they seek other employment. The vast majority of Americans turn away from extreme socialism, agreeing to let the rich keep their wealth in exchange for humane care. All who receive these benefits have paid their share for them. To keep their wealth, business pays the rest. Whether just or not, the nation remains tranquil, with social security insurance benefits a major factor in maintaining our democracy.