A quick dip in the columnist's mail bag
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JUNE 4, 2000
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
A quick dip in the columnist's mail bag
Early in May, I made reference to Nevada Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, writing: "Sen. Raggio blusters that it's absurd to talk about removing the government employees from the Legislature -- why, no state but Nebraska any longer blocks public employees from serving as lawmakers."
From Pleasant Springs, Wisconsin, Tom writes in: "Wisconsin prevents state employees from being in the state legislature, although they may run for 'non-partisan office.' This translates into a large number of the supervisors on the Dane County Board (People's Republic of Dane County -- Madison) being state employees.
Also weighing in on Sen. Raggio's assertion was Tim from Tempe, Ariz., who wrote: "Vin, you can add Arizona to the list also. I work for Arizona State University and I cannot run or serve on the legislature unless I resign my position."
Later in May, I wrote a tentative endorsement of George W. Bush's modest plan to allow wage-earners to choose for themselves where to invest 2 percent of their own paychecks -- calling that "actually less than one third of the money now being systematically looted and fed directly into the Democratic Party's intergenerational income-transfer scheme under the rubric of being 'placed for safe-keeping into a Social Security trust fund with your name on it.' "
A number of astute readers wrote in to blow the whistle on my tacit acceptance of the standard government formulation that the Social Security tax rate is "only" about 7.5 percent.
In fact, because of the employer "match," the net federal grab for Social Security alone is 12.4 percent - the deduction reaches 15.3 percent when employers add 2.9 percent for Medicare.
Reader Bruce Elmore of Hanover Park, Ill. wrote in: "Actually, what Tweedledum (GWB) is proposing is allowing a person to invest 2 percent of the 15 percent (7 and three-quarters percent is 'contributed' at gunpoint by the employee and 7 and three-quarters percent is 'voluntarily matched' also at gunpoint by your employer.)
"Therefore, even George Bush's completely timid plan would still leave 13 percent, not 5 percent, of every worker's paycheck in the hands of government. ...
"And by the way, did you know that the Supreme Court has already held that the government has no legal obligation to repay you under this 'Social(ist) Security' scheme at all?"
Brian Griffin of east Texas (I love his web moniker -- Manyglocks) picked up the theme:
"I just received your tremendously enjoyable May 20th column.
"As a self-employed individual, I pay both the employer and employee side of the 'money placed for safe-keeping into a Social Security trust fund with your name on it.' The total percentage for me is around 15 percent, I think. The percentage is really the same for everyone since employers could raise salaries, if they weren't sending so much money to the government on the employees behalf, for 'safe keeping.' ...
"It makes me sick to think what the 15 percent of my salary over my lifetime would be worth to me if invested properly. Maybe the Libertarian party should advertise a 15 percent raise for all Americans that vote Libertarian. It could be the cheapest, legal vote buying scheme in history. ..."
San Diego attorney and martial arts instructor Scot Conway weighed in next:
"Social Security costs more than that. As a former employer, I was amazed at how hard it was for me to pay my people. Finally, I gave up. ... By the time all the taxes and fees were figured into the paychecks, I was paying some $140 for every $100 my employees actually received, and this at relatively low wages. ...
"Even those who make minimum wage are losing 15 percent of the money a business is paying to have them there. Whether the business is hit or the employee's check is garnished by the government, the simple fact is that the wage earner is not receiving anywhere near the same amount of money the business is paying to have him there. If employees realized that every penny a business pays to have them there is really their money, they would be shocked. ...
"I remember one particularly successful year when I was a child in which my father earned so much money that the government took nearly 50 percent in income tax at the federal level, about 17 percent at the state level (California), and Social Security hit him for another 15 percent. By the time he was done, he had maybe a third of his own money left to pay for household expenses, and that was mostly due to deductions he was able to find to 'minimize' his tax burden.
"Of course, I suppose he was 'rich' and didn't need the money, did he? No matter that he worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and missed watching my brother and me grow up so he could pay his taxes and still have enough left over to raise a family."
And I'll wind up with a related missive from Jude Le Blanc of Southern Shores, N.C.:
"I'm 60 and will have nothing to do with Social Security. In the guise of a supposed retirement income, the real reason for Social Security is to render your person and your talent a 'federal area' and thus subject to taxation. (Re: The Buck Act)
"Since we were not informed of the subterfuge, that renders the Social Security contract null and void. I'm still convinced that a subtle revolution could be instigated if more and more people refused to acknowledge the existence of a SSN.
"That number corresponds exactly with the profile so feared and preached about in Christian churches throughout the bible belt as 'the mark of the beast.' Unless you have the ability to work the underground economy and trust in the great spirit rather than the insurance companies, that SSN is there to haunt you and remind you that the emancipation proclamation was just another public relation ruse.
"That number is a slap in the face of freedom and the hypocrisy of the candidates (shudder) and the blatant lies they present to their hypnotized constituency ring with condescending paternalism. It's tragic that so many sacrifices were made, so many died, so much blood was spilled on the battlefields for a 'republic' and we end up with choices like Gore and Bush -- both four-letter words."
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers" is available at 1-800-244-2224; or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
