Conservatives On Social Security - They Hate You

If you have any belief that conservatives really are thinking just about the budget when they mumble about reforming Social Security and Medicare, think again:

The hole in the government finances, the utter mess of ObamaCare, the coming Medicare maelstrom: how did we get in this mess? The short answer is that it all started in about 1850 when sensitive people started worrying about the poor suffering workers. Oh no, they cried. We have to do something. They were sensitive, those people, but they were not smart. Their "do something" always ended up as some centralized administrative government program, with government taking money from its least favorite citizens and giving it to its most favored citizens, and calling the result compassion.

Earth to sensitive people. Scientists have not called humans "social animals" for nothing. "Society" is not an administrative mechanism but a living organism in which each human participates in complex acts of cooperation, social mores, and, as a last resort, force. The "trick," as climate scientists put it, is to get as many people as possible acting out of cooperative and moral motives.

Let's put this in evolutionary, Darwinian terms for our liberal friends. The reason that all human societies have adapted to feature cooperation and religion is because these social inventions reduce the need for force and its administrative horror show. In our age we are foolish enough to put this to the test. We have created a mechanical monster, the modern centralized administrative state, to rumble over society, tearing up its complex social interactions with unstoppable force. Pay for the government's Social Security plan or go to jail. Join the government's universal health plan or go to jail. Send your kid to government school or go to jail. The result is like an Asian tsunami, a debris field of broken dreams and promises.

(Excuse me while I wipe the spittle from my cheek.)

No, they hate Social Security and Medicare. They hate the very idea of those two programs, and they have a fundamental contempt for their fellow Americans that not only like those two programs, but rely on them. And they have a fundamental contempt for Americans that actually care about other Americans.

Honestly, these people really think we would be better off back in the social Middle Ages, when "every man for himself" was the rule of the day. These are people who honestly believe that society would be better off if it would just cut its weaker members loose. They also hate the idea they might have to contribute to the betterment of any aspect of society. Judging by the quote above, they hate a lot of the very things that are the reasons people emigrate to this country.

Interestingly, one commenter to the article quoted above stated:

I've been making forced contributions to social insecurity for 34 years, since I was 15 years old. I would like to get back at least what I put in, but the money is gone and we are going to have to face up to that fact sooner or later. My husband and I would gladly agree to give up all we have been forced to pay in if the corrupt government would agree not to take any more social insecurity taxes from our paychecks or our childrens' paychecks.

To the commenter: you might as well go ahead and tattoo a big, fat, red "S" on your forehead right now, because you're a sucker. You drank the Konservative Koolaid on Social Security, and you're ready to do what they want--give it all up. Congratulations on making it through retirement...maybe your kids can support you.