From: "David B. Shemano"
There is no "right" to social security, in the sense that there is no contract between the taxpayer and the government. ^^^^^ CB: People should be able to get back as much as they paid in , although , I guess that might not be as much as what they would get as benefits. Seems there is some quantum meruit contract like argument or some kind of "promise exchanged for promise " argument. "You, federal government, promised to give me social security benefits , if I paid social security payroll taxes to you for all these years. " The federal government made some kind of promise to all the payors as a basis for collecting all that money from them all those years. Uhh , I guess it's not exactly quantum meruit , maybe unjust enrichment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_meruit Quantum meruit is a Latin phrase meaning "as much as he has deserved". In the context of contract law, it means something along the lines of "reasonable value of services". In the United States, the elements of quantum meruit are determined by state common law. For example, to state a claim for unjust enrichment in New York, a plaintiff must allege that (1) defendant was enriched; (2) the enrichment was at plaintiff's expense; and (3) the circumstances were such that equity and good conscience require defendants to make restitution. The amount paid in by some individuals, may not amount to as much as would be paid out to them under the current system, so... ^^^^^^^^^ There is no "trust fund" in the sense that, legally, the money in the "trust fund" belongs to the government and not the taxpayer and the taxpayer has no legal claim on the funds. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvering_v._Davis; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemming_v._Nestor. To the extent that we think of social security as a self-funded transfer arrangement, then it is a ponzi scheme, in the sense that it "pays returns to separate investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme. To the extent that we ignore the rhetoric of "trust funds" and recognize that the payroll tax is just another tax designed to fund current expenditures, I think the ponzi rhetoric is misplaced. David Shemano _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
