Call SS a 'rip off' if you must but it's not a Ponzi scheme

To The Daily Sun,

Gee Tony, I read your last week's letter to The Sun. It has me concerned. You must control your rhetoric if you want to make a point. Clever rants, although entertaining, detract from making your case. Name calling and capital letters are beneath a man of your obvious intellect. I am a Democrat, but I refuse to get put in your “clown car.” I stand ready to meet you over a cup of coffee anytime. But, please don’t paint all Democrats with the same brush and expect them to play nice.

Now, Tony, Democrats are the loyal opposition currently, but we are working on that. They have a right and a duty to be a bit critical of the president and his somewhat aberrant behavior. You must, as the gentleman I know you are, fail to condone some of his public attitudes; right?

As relates to the economy, I see behind the curtain and am concerned. We have lots of money flowing around, it’s true. But boom, uncontrolled, always reaches a limit and what follows is not pretty. That brings us to the criticism of Obama’s efforts. He didn’t get much help from the Republicans. Despite that, he restored confidence in the system and attempted to create a health care structure that worked for all citizens, not just those getting coverage at work. I have often wondered how well we would be doing now if Trump had been elected after Bush. I’m pretty sure our current “leader” would not have been up to the tasks served up that January.

Back to the present and the murky future that awaits. When are we going to solve the real problems of the days to come? The economy will hum along for the next couple years but no big plan is emerging to organize the long run into the future. Tariffs are not a plan. Nor is heaping insults on trading partners a goodwill formula.

You may say that I ,too, have emerged from the “tall weeds” but I have a slightly longer memory than your average critic. I am a child born in the Great Depression and I remember Roosevelt and what he did. What you referred to as Ponzi schemes were efforts to restore dignity to those who wanted to work and then step up and fight for their country. I would tend to disagree with your assigning the term “blood sucking” to the Social Security system. It was designed a safety net for destitute senior citizens. Both political parties have had a share in its mismanagement over the years. It has certainly been a help to me in the years since I quit the work scene some 15 years ago. I don’t have a company pension, so it is allowing me to draw more slowly on the IRA money that the wife and I put away during our work years. Call it a “rip off” if you must, but not a Ponzi scheme.

Next week, I will offer some insights on how Trump really created his unsustainable boom and who is going to be hurt the most when it suddenly runs out of gas. No pun intended!

Bill Dawson

Northfield