Social Security started out well enough, of course. The first person to receive a check was Ida May Fuller who paid Social Security taxes for three years that came to a total of $24.75. Her very first monthly check in 1940 was for $22.54. And since she lived to be 100, she collected $22,888.92.
The Roosevelt administration made a big deal out of Fuller and the benefits she received. But in reality, Social Security was just like any other big government program. It was built to fail.
Ida May Fuller, the first recipient (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Social Security (anti-social and insecure), or as I like to refer to it, a Ponzi scheme at the point of a gun, is one of my favorite subjects to write about. And when Anthony Wile gets spooled up about Social Security, the combination is delicious.
This business about Ida May Fuller is legendary, and instructive. It exposes the fraud of the system from its very first beneficiary. I remember Ayn Rand’s favorite question to ask about any government program designed to “improve peoples’ lives:” At whose expense?
Once we get an answer to that question, we know how things will turn out.
When I received my first paycheck at age 17 and discovered that someone had gotten there first, I learned just whose expense was involved: mine!
When I talked with my socialist father-in-law (predictably a college professor) about the Social Security fraud, I suggested that (as he was already on Social Security at the time) I just cut him a check directly, and skip the round trip through Washington, DC.
He became furious and wouldn’t talk to me about it anymore! Truth hurts and I had seen through the fraud. And his answer was to run away and hide. We never talked about it again.
Wile has his point of view, which is well-taken: “If people don’t understand how their society operates, how are they going to change it?” Those on Social Security are about to find out.
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