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Show THURSDAY, MARCH 25. 1976 PAGE 4 Look At Social Security . By JOHN F. McMANUS It is always risky to take a hard look at the Social Security system. Anyone who does so can expect to be labelled a heartless monster who cares little about older or disabled Americans. The possibility that there might be a better way than the government's sacred cow to provide for our needs in old age never enters some minds. But if there is not a better way, then, according to former Budget Director Roy Ash, we are all doomed to a steadily declining standard of living. When Social Security began, its maximum tax per working participant was only $30 a year. Employers were compelled to contribute a like amount. Scheduled increases brought the tax to $90 a year by 1949, with employers still forced to contribute a like amount. BECAUSE THE system promised a grand return for so little cost, workers clamored to join. Politicians, always eager to buy support for themselves with federal dollars, expanded coverage regularly. By July of 1975, 35.3 million Americans were receiving monthly Social Security checks. But the system was already going in the hole by $12 billion a year, and the higher benefits and greater numbers of recipients can only mean bigger deficits in the future. In the past, whenever the system needed additional funding, Congress either added more young workers, who put dollars in and took nothing out, or it increased the tax. But, realistically speaking, there are no more younger workers to add. Instead, Congress repeat- edly increases the Social Security tax on present workers and covers growing deficits by inflation, the known nemesis of the old and needy. On February 9, President Ford asked Congress d for another increase to 6.15 per cent of all wages up to $15,300. The new maximum cost per individual will be $940.95, every bit of which must be matched by employers. And even this proposed increase will not cover the expected deficits, because more and more Americans are becoming eligible for Social Security benefits. across-the-boar- DEDUCTIONS FROM for Social paychecks Security now constitute a healthy chunk out of all wages. But the burden to employers of matching all ft such payments has undoubtedly cost many workers a pay raise. Even more, it has forced many businessmen to postpone or abandon expansion plans. If a young man earning $200 per week were able to invest what he alone pays for Social Security, he could purchase a retirement plan that would bring him many times the benefits of the government plan, and would provide him with life insurance protection as well. His investment would actually supply the free enterprise system with a stimulus that could only result in more goods and lower prices. If employers were not compelled to match employee payments, an era of higher wages, new businesses, and more jobs would follow as night follows day. The Social Security system should be scrapped. But it should be done in such a way as not to abandon those who are already dependent on it. Those on a pension, or about to obtain one, must be guaranteed the promised bene- MiOC'J poj PWiS MODS nr. O- T- AD EFFECTIVE MARCH 25, 26, 27 Jfy CH0ICE J" ' fits. The economic spurt that would ensue would be phenomenal. The consequences of continuing Social Security can only be growing stag-- , nation and impoverishment, already so evident in socialist England. yj! J,FFY W.F. DOWNEY SOFTENERS WESTERN 34 BETTER FOLGERS 4 ROLL AT BUY THIS LOW NOW KRAFT 4 4 DEODORANT 94 4 OZ. 3M69 PRICE MAC. DINNERS HAMMER & PAK 59 12 OZ PKG. 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