THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 21, 1995 TAG: 9502210003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Regarding ``The elderly should stop stealing from kids'' (letter, Feb. 1): I am a 76-year-old person who lived through the Great Depression. Deprivation was rife. Millions of people had no money and didn't really know where their next meal was coming from. I saw men scratching through garbage cans for a bite to eat. Soup lines were common in the cities. Conditions were very hard, especially for the elderly.
President Roosevelt decided that something had to be done. As a result, Social Security came into being so the elderly would not again have to suffer in their declining years.
Social Security would have enough money to last in perpetuity had it not been for our elected officials in Washington hanging costly programs onto the system. For instance, Social Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) were tacked onto Social Security because Congress saw a pile of money it could use without raising taxes.
Hundreds of thousands of people who are not entitled or eligible for any assistance are bankrupting the system. Believe it or not, thousands of these people are immigrant aliens as well as drug addicts and alcoholics (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 20).
Many individuals who participate in Social Security from its inception die before they draw out any or all of the money they contributed. What happens to this money? What happens to the interest on the principal that is ``borrowed'' from the Social Security fund by the government?
Regarding the idea of giving the elderly what they need: Who determines what they ``need''?
If Social Security is discontinued, are the children of the recipients of Social Security willing and able to assume the cost of providing for the care of their parents, probably in their own home?
TAYLOR W. GRAY
Virginia Beach, Feb. 3, 1995 by CNB