en·ti·tle·ment
noun \-ˈtī-təl-mənt\
Definition of ENTITLEMENT
1
a : the
state or condition of being entitled : rightb : a
right to benefits specified especially by law or contract
2
: a
government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; also : funds
supporting or distributed by such a program
3
: belief
that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges
Cassi Creek:
I
began formal work at age 14. Since that
point in time, every pay check I have received has had a deduction for Social
Security insurance and for disability insurance. Those withheld funds have been used by the
government to create insurance programs so that workers will not end up
penniless at retirement.
Included
in the Social Security program is a medical insurance benefit intended to help
those citizens over 65, who were essentially uninsurable until Medicare was
enacted.
If
I were a different person, I might have banked a 10 or 20 percent of my income
in some sort of retirement fund. I didn’t
and that can’t be changed. However,
there have been enough recessions, embezzlements, and financial crime that any
savings I did manage to put away vanished with market downturns and
manipulations. Therefore, I am happy to
have that income from Social Security.
If
I had amassed a small fortune via the stock market or by maintaining retirement
accounts and real estate manipulation, I would be receiving some income on a
regular basis. If I had purchased the
right sort of life insurance, I could now be living on income from that
manipulation. No one would question my
right to those funds that my actions would have entitled me to receive.
Down
size the investment total and remove it from the ability of insurance companies
and unscrupulous investors. Suddenly the
fact that I have become entitled to a guaranteed income is regarded as money I
am receiving, unearned. I have paid
premiums for 51 years in order to have a small retirement income. I have paid premiums and still pay monthly
premiums for Medicare health insurance coverage.
I
contracted with my government to secure a small retirement income. That insurance policy is available today only
because the private sector has not been allowed to touch premiums paid into the
system by me and by people like me. That
angers many investors and the GOP has incessantly tried to hand those funds
over to their financial contributors. Part of their propaganda campaign to
deliver social security premiums to the corporate world is to refer to monthly policy
payments as “entitlements,” pronounced with a sneer.
What
is happening is that Social Security and Medicare recipients are being
denigrated because of the size of their premiums paid into the system. If we recipients had banked a hundred
thousand dollars, a year we would be regarded differently by the private sector
and our entitled status would be happily catered to by the Congress and the
GOP/teavangelists. We can’t all be born
wealthy. We can’t all work at jobs that
pay $100,000 or more/year. We older
Boomers are retiring now and many of us were once the people who staffed
manufacturing plants, hospitals, and other former middle class job roles. Many of us worked in career fields that were
less than lucrative and that did not manipulate other people’s financial
security. It took me 30 years of
technical field work to obtain a final income equal to what is now starting
pay in my profession, if one can find a job
in that field any more.
A
portion of my retirement income results from injuries received in the service
of the United States during time of war. I defy anyone to claim that I am freeloading
when I accept that long-delayed compensation.
“Entitlement
is not” a dirty word. It indicates that
I have fulfilled a monetary agreement with my government to provide revenue and
health care. I expect the Congress to
honor that agreement without chicanery, embezzlement, or manipulation to
benefit corporate banks and investors.
If
the GOP could misappropriate the portion of our budget that is intended to pay
for Social Security and health care, “entitlements” would be suddenly a good
thing to be parceled out amongst the hedge fund managers and other high priests
of greed and privilege. However, the
program was constructed with every intent of avoiding those crimes that only
became possible as the GOP nibbled away the safeguard regulations. It required 70 years of GOP assault to undo
the economic protections put into place after the Great Depression. Now that generation is rapidly
departing. As with the Holocaust, the eyewitnesses
are no longer available to sound the alarms and warn of another assault on the
global economy by the very rich and the very greedy.
The
virus that causes otherwise respectable people to accept the lies proffered by
the GOP/teavangelists are insidious and dangerous. It causes malfeasance, greed, bigotry, and
the desire to vote against the best interests of the populace. Education is the only curative.
I
refuse to be infected with that virus. I
and all the retirees I know paid hard cash taken from our paychecks to provide
the benefits of Social Security, Medicare, and SSDI. We are entitled to what we contracted
for. Entitlements? Yes, according to all
three definitions cited above.
What
we don’t subscribe to is the GOP/teavangelist belief that being wealthy
entitles one to live outside the legal and ethical codes of the nation or to be
entitled to steal all they can from the private of public sector.
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