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Is it morally acceptable to you to force other people to pay for your bills?
It's just another name for theft, and distribution of stolen goods.
Call it what you wish.
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States
Do you think it's morally acceptable for others to pay to pave the street you live on? How about for the police to come help you? My grandparents just lost their home in a fire over the weekend; do you think their next door neighbor should have been forced to pay for the fire department to come put out that fire if it wasn't affecting their own house? How about the person down the street? Should I have to pay for the library if I don't use it? Why should my taxes go to ensuring that commercial meat is safe if I'm a vegetarian?
Wah wah wah. If you don't like it, move somewhere else where there are no taxes and no services (which you use, even if you think you don't).
I don’t think it is acceptable for other people to pay for the roads.
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I voted "Yes, I love it". That means a more efficient means of maintaining society's needs. Besides, compassion should not be limited to what your income is. Social Darwinist (pseudo-science, btw) approaches actually weaken society, not strengthen it.
If social security only distributed to recipients the amount they paid into it or less, then social security wouldn't be forecasted to no longer exist in a few years.
Since that's not the case, then it's reasonable to assume that current recipients are getting more than they've paid into it. So...welfare.
Social Security is funded via FICA contributions.
FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contributory Act. Making the contributions to a Federal Insurance program, receipts of insurance are not welfare, but proceeds of your insurance contributions, the same as private disability insurance, or personal liability coverage. You wouldn't support a private health insurance policy refusing coverage because the costs exceeded the insurance contributions, would you?
Further for decades the Government has held this money, had an individual invested it in large stocks, you would expect a 10% compound growth annually, for government bonds 5%-6% compound annually. At 6% Maximum FICA ~$8k pa over 20 years would gross $319,000, at 10% it would yield $515,000 (both plus change), neither are small change, and that presumes the recipient qualifies, and that the contribution is fixed and only over 20 years. If we make it more reasonable, so 30-70 ages (40 years) at 10% the yield is $3,900,000, and 6% it yields $1,300,000 (both plus change). Given current maximum monthly benefit, that would take (at the 10% rate) 113 years 7 months to deplete.
If you want to make Social Security non-Insurance, that's fine, but from it's inception to now, it's been sold as insurance, if you don't want it to be sold as insurance, then change it. However all current contributors are still covered by that insurance policy they were forced into by the Federal Government. Finally, if it's not insurance, can individuals opt out if they enroll in a private insurance plan as an alternate?
I've never forced anyone to pay my bills. But, since we live in a representative democracy, I and the majority of other citizens have agreed that for the benefit of society we should provide a baseline of medical and living standards ("safety net") to be paid for by taxes.
Similar to the HOA thread that was posted recently. If a majority of the neighbors decide they would like a pool, then you will have to pay for the pool through your HOA fees even if you never use it. If you don't like it, you can move to a different neighborhood. A lot of people don't like HOAs, but I never heard them referred to as "immoral".
I've never forced anyone to pay my bills. But, since we live in a representative democracy, I and the majority of other citizens have agreed that for the benefit of society we should provide a baseline of medical and living standards ("safety net") to be paid for by taxes.
Similar to the HOA thread that was posted recently. If a majority of the neighbors decide they would like a pool, then you will have to pay for the pool through your HOA fees even if you never use it. If you don't like it, you can move to a different neighborhood. A lot of people don't like HOAs, but I never heard them referred to as "immoral".
You're conflating voluntary participation in an HOA with being forcibly victimized by the state to fund vote buying schemes (welfare)
FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contributory Act. Making the contributions to a Federal Insurance program, receipts of insurance are not welfare, but proceeds of your insurance contributions, the same as private disability insurance, or personal liability coverage. You wouldn't support a private health insurance policy refusing coverage because the costs exceeded the insurance contributions, would you?
Further for decades the Government has held this money, had an individual invested it in large stocks, you would expect a 10% compound growth annually, for government bonds 5%-6% compound annually. At 6% Maximum FICA ~$8k pa over 20 years would gross $319,000, at 10% it would yield $515,000 (both plus change), neither are small change, and that presumes the recipient qualifies, and that the contribution is fixed and only over 20 years. If we make it more reasonable, so 30-70 ages (40 years) at 10% the yield is $3,900,000, and 6% it yields $1,300,000 (both plus change). Given current maximum monthly benefit, that would take (at the 10% rate) 113 years 7 months to deplete.
If you want to make Social Security non-Insurance, that's fine, but from it's inception to now, it's been sold as insurance, if you don't want it to be sold as insurance, then change it. However all current contributors are still covered by that insurance policy they were forced into by the Federal Government. Finally, if it's not insurance, can individuals opt out if they enroll in a private insurance plan as an alternate?
FICA may be sold as insurance, but if so its the only insurance policy I've heard of where the total of premiums is less than the total benefits paid - as if they were reading the actuarial tables upside down when it was design. Most people have received far more in benefits than they paid, but clearly that is unsustainable. Let's call Social Security what it is - the world's largest Ponzi Scheme.
Is it moral to kill over a million people in the Middle East in the name of "freedom" and to fight "terrorism"?
No, but that's EXACTLY what Bill Clinton did when he signed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998.
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