Blog 279 – 04.22.2016

First let me state the obvious that the only option to aging is to die and most folks do not find that a very attractive option. We have developed a culture that worships youth but where the oldsters are becoming a larger and larger percentage of the population.

In the early 1930’s during the Great Depression the Social Security Trust Fund was begun to help older retired workers and disabled workers and their families have an income to keep them out of poverty. This Trust Fund was created with contributions from workers pay which were matched by their employers. I have read that 2.6 trillions dollars have been appropriated from this fund by Congress and used for the General Fund. The attached picture has been posted on social media several times and I post it again hoping its message will resonate, percolate, and make many votes irate enough to vote out the rascals who did and support such a dastardly deed.

Many in this country have been duped into thinking that robbing from the poor and giving to the rich is okay and that forcing those who have stollen to pay back what they have stollen is “redistribution of wealth” or “socialism.” The New Deal of the thirties was a noble attempt to give the little guys a little slice of the pie that they had worked so hard to create.

Older people are not always wiser but many remember a time when a fair share of the pie was a bigger slice. The American Dream of your children having a better life, a bigger slice of the pie than you and your parents had has become an impossible dream for many. Older folks who vote please consider that those who stole the Social Security Trust Fund and now call it an entitlement that needs to be trimmed, taken away, or turned into 401K investment accounts for the young, are up for re-election. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a Congress that voted for you instead of for raises in their own salaries and to benefit their rich and powerful friends.

There are so many scam artists out there trying to cheat old people out of their savings and all too many companies eager to tack on hidden fees or raise interest rates to get a bigger slice of the pie for themselves by shaving a little off of everyone else’s piece. Government’s job is “to promote the general welfare.” Welfare is a good word unless we sacrifice the welfare of the majority to the welfare of a rich few. I conclude with a quote from a Bob Marley song called One Love:

“There is one question I’d really like to ask. Is there a place for the hopeless sinner who has hurt all mankind just to save his soul.”

There is and it is love. Love the rascals because they need it the most. The problem with revolutions is the new regime is always the same as the last one or worse. Nothing changes till love is applied to the problem. Old or young, rich or poor, we all want to be loved, and to get a fair share of the pie.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White