The Government Program That Annoys Me Most

We all know that feeling you get when something that's terrible or annoying bothers you more than it bothers others. We all have our pet peeves, what grinds our gears, what just makes us see red. On steemit, with the popularity of libertarian-type views, it's become clear that government inefficiencies and overreach are quite despised here. I know we might have different views on what should be done ultimately, and what the best form of government would look like, but I believe we can all easily pick out some policies that bother us more than others.

For me, social security bothers me deep into the core of my being, to a disproportionate degree when compared to other parts of government. Every time I hear about social security I want to yell from the mountaintops for all to hear how stupid it is. I actually feel a turning in my gut and a burning in my soul every time it gets brought up where I just want to denounce it like it's the devil.

Source: imgflip

Social Security

So, what is social security? In short, it's a ponzi-scheme that Americans are involuntarily subjected to participating in even though it's totally unsustainable and conceptually flawed to begin with. It essentially mandates that a portion of your hard earned money goes to the government, but in return, when you reach retirement age you can get money back out of the system. There are no guarantees on how much money you will get back, there isn't technically a "ledger" that says who owns what money in the system. It's not like you have a Social Security account that you directly deposit that money into. The money you pay is primarily used to fund paying out those who are now collecting their Social Security benefits. The government basically says don't worry about it, you can trust us and you'll totally get some money back. The return you get is based off of income and years worked, so you might be able to make some guesses on what you'll most likely get. It's intended to provide around 40% of you previous income (with restrictions of course), but the specific amounts are subject to change and some of the rules are a bit nuanced. As you may have surmised by now, I'm not really in a place to give it a friendly definition, so if you want a less biased explanation, here's a pretty decent write-up you can refer to from the InCharge Institute of America.

I know that there are more impactful issues in the US, but Social Security just really gets me fired up. Here's an excerpt from a politifact article in regards to Social Security:

"For an average-wage-earning, two-income couple turning 65 in 2010, the pay-in, pay-out ratio for Social Security by itself will actually be slightly negative —- the couple will have paid $600,000 in lifetime Social Security taxes and will receive only $579,000 in lifetime Social Security benefits."

Now, the concept that you could dump $600,000 in to the government and get $579,000 back has 0 shock value to me. This actually sounds more efficient than what you would expect from our government to be completely frank. What bothers me are two things.

1. It's painfully obvious that in today's world every individual should be in charge of their own damn retirement, there is no reason for the government to be involved here. I understand (not saying I agree with) some of the circumstances that led to the signing of the Social Security Act in 1935, but this is a far different America where I think we can all agree we don't NEED social security. Yes, some irresponsible people will fail to take charge of their future, but it is more immoral to take from others at the barrel of a gun than it is to allow people to face the consequences of their own life choices.
2. If those $600,000 were invested into basically any long-term investment they could be worth millions. Think about how much compounded interest you could be earning on that money! Think about the value individuals could bring into the economy by being able to own and manage their hard earned money!

Math Time!

To elaborate on point 2, let's make an incredibly simple comparison so I don't have to spend much time doing math. Let's say 2 people make $50,000 every year for 50 years. Person 1 pays 6.2% into Social Security and person 2 puts 6.2% into a 401k that's earning 6% return annually. Hypothetically, the person that paid into social security is going to pay in about $155,000 over their 50 year working years, and will likely get somewhere near that range back in Social Security if we assume it's okay to scale back what we saw in the article above. Person 2 is going to put in the same $155,000 into their retirement fund and end up with $846,171 at retirement (calculated using bankrate). Now, this is assuming that these people do not ever get pay raises, as you can imagine, the gap widens as your pay increases over time.

These figures are also assuming that those paying in now are going to be able to get the benefits later, which would take some serious juggling to maintain. It's a ponzi scheme created by the government and forced on us by the point of a gun! I find myself getting fired up as I write this and I don't know why the hell there isn't outrage across the country demanding this program be dissolved! Obviously, it would seem to be very unfair to simply pull the plug as many people paid into the system their whole lives and should get a return of some sort. It's going to take some re-shuffling of our nations budget to be able to drop Social Security but it's also not really sustainable and it's a ridiculous system to begin with, so why aren't we making a huge stink over this?

Source: imgflip

What Bothers You?

Anyway, I was just thinking about how I get excessively upset about this specific policy and it made me wonder if others have similar feelings about other policies. What do you guys think, do you have any government programs/policies that just fire you up and infuriate you like social security does to me? I'd love to hear!