Mr. Asshole:

In today's Washington Post, Robert Samuelson attempts to portray any money received from the government as "welfare" in order to malign Social Security. Excerpts: (emp add)

We are a nation of closet welfare junkies, which helps explain why we can't have an honest debate about Social Security. Social Security and Medicare are our biggest welfare programs, but because Americans regard "welfare" as shameful, we've found other labels for them. We call them "social insurance" or "entitlements." Anything but welfare.

Welfare is a governmental transfer from one group to another for the benefit of those receiving. The transfer involves cash or services (health care, education).   [Education! What about the military?]   ...  Social Security is mainly welfare.

Naturally, the elderly don't see themselves as freeloaders. They think they've "earned" their Social Security benefits by paying payroll taxes. As Schieber and Shoven note, the term "social insurance" dates to Bismarck in 19th-century Germany. But applying it to Social Security involved much political license. In normal usage, insurance suggests protection against something you don't expect to happen -- a house fire, a car accident. By contrast, most people expect to grow old. Using the "terminology of insurance . . . [was intended] to mask the huge welfare payments being made," they write.

Samuelson, an economist of some sort, knows about Whole Life Insurance. From InvestorWords.com: (emp add)

whole life
Life insurance which provides coverage for an individual's whole life, rather than a specified term. A savings component, called cash value or loan value, builds over time and can be used for wealth accumulation. Whole life is the most basic form of cash value life insurance.

What one does with the savings component - lump sum payment or annuity - depends on the policy and the individual. Payouts by an insurance company are disbursements under an insurance plan. Similarly, payouts by the Social Security Administration are disbursements under an insurance plan, not welfare.

Incredibly, Samuelson concludes his essay with: (emp add)

On these issues, we can't think straight unless we talk straight. We can't control our welfare habit unless we admit our addiction.

posted by Quiddity at 3/24/2005 08:04:00 AM