The Right Books

The Social Security “problem” is actually one of those nonproblems that make up most of contemporary politics, itself largely an arena for middle-class people lacking the strong back necessary for useful physical labor and the talent requisite for genuine intellectual activity, but with too much education, meddlesomeness, and self-esteem to open a hardware store or go fishing. True, the government, under the aegis of the FICA, deducts an outrageous sum of money from every paycheck, which it proceeds promptly to waste; but waste, after all and political philosophy to the contrary, is the sole function of government, its only trick, the thing it knows best. It is the penalty we moderns must pay for having created the highest civilization in human history, but it is certainly not worth the fretting of men with the option of otherwise employing their intellects—in reading the novels of Faulkner, say, or going bird-hunting.

For those who simply must masticate such dry bones, however, there is an interesting booklet available in the Heritage Foundation’s Critical Issues series, entitled Social Security Reform: The Family Plan (The Heritage Foundation, 513 C Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002, $3), by Peter J. Ferrara. Ferrara believes that the Social Security system suffers from the radical flaw of contradictoriness—“an inherent conflict in the program’s objectives”; the simultaneous pursuit of welfare and insurance. Separate the two functions, Ferrara argues, entrust them to two separate and distinct institutions, and you are well on your way toward lasting reform.

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The Social Security “problem” is actually one of those nonproblems that make up most of contemporary politics, itself largely an arena for middle-class people lacking the strong back necessary for useful physical labor and the talent requisite for genuine intellectual activity, but with too much education, meddlesomeness, and self-esteem to open a hardware store or go fishing. True, the government, under the aegis of the FICA, deducts an outrageous sum of money from every paycheck, which it proceeds promptly to waste; but waste, after all and political philosophy to the contrary, is the sole function of government, its only trick, the thing it knows best. It is the penalty we moderns must pay for having created the highest civilization in human history, but it is certainly not worth the fretting of men with the option of otherwise employing their intellects—in reading the novels of Faulkner, say, or going bird-hunting.

For those who simply must masticate such dry bones, however, there is an interesting booklet available in the Heritage Foundation’s Critical Issues series, entitled Social Security Reform: The Family Plan (The Heritage Foundation, 513 C Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002, $3), by Peter J. Ferrara. Ferrara believes that the Social Security system suffers from the radical flaw of contradictoriness—“an inherent conflict in the program’s objectives”; the simultaneous pursuit of welfare and insurance. Separate the two functions, Ferrara argues, entrust them to two separate and distinct institutions, and you are well on your way toward lasting reform.