Right to Social Security

A lot of people seem to view social security as a right. You can argue all you want about the pros and cons of the concept, but I honestly don't see how it qualifies as a right.


There are essentially two ways of looking at social security. I'm not going to go into depth regarding my personal views of the concept. That would be irrelevant to the point that I am trying to make.

The first way to look at social security is as a form of wealth distribution. The idea behind this is that you can tax people who are employed as a way to ensure that people who are retired and people who are disabled can maintain a revenue stream. While there are certainly good people who benefit from this approach, there are also a lot of good people who are being harmed. This is further complicated by the fact that everyone has unique circumstances that can't be fully considered under this model unless the government becomes too involved. This means that some individuals in poor financial shape can end up with money taken from them for the benefit of people in good financial shape. I think it's safe to say that this concept does not qualify as a right.

The other way of looking at social security is as a savings plan. To ensure that citizens have some revenue when they retire, the government can take money from them during their working years. When they retire, the government will then be able to pay them back. The problem with this concept is that the government takes control over how citizens save for retirement. Usually, people will have other forms of retirement savings as well, but some would much rather have control over all of their savings. Having the government take away that opportunity is certainly not a right.