Dear Mr. President

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Dear Mr. President

I am writing today as one of the beneficiaries of Social Security. I would refer you to my letter of March 6th in which I tried to make clear the difference between the so called "entitlement" programs in the United States of America and the Entitled Class of Americans.

Briefly, the beneficiaries of  the entitlement programs such as Social Security are "entitled" to monthly payments because they worked and paid into a program for a required number of years... In my case about 30. Lots of this work was done as members of the armed services in combat. Lots more of it was done in jobs of heavy labor at low wages.

The "Entitled Class" assume that they are entitled because they have wealth. They are entitled to the wealth they have mainly because they have it. They have wealth largely because someone else worked for it, and they received the so called "profits" from other's labor because they were entitled to it.

If those of us who do not have wealth were entitled then, obviously, we would have it.

So, I have read the available data on your proposal re Social Security. I appreciate your reasons, and I appreciate that you are trying to build consensus. However, we know in this world, or should know from bitter experiences like allowing slavery to remain in our Constitution, that consensus requires a genuine urge on the part of all parties to create a better world for all of mankind.

This proposal is "politics of the usual kind". This kind of "consensus" does not work. The erosion of our democratic ideals all across the board over the last 35  years speaks very loudly to this fact.

There has to be a better way, and I think that you can find and implement it.

lots of love

-tom