Okay, people, I will try and explain it to the people who insist on calling Social Security an “entitlement.” Social Security is not an entitlement. According to my Webster’s, an entitlement is a “gift.”
Social Security, which I paid into by “order of my government,”  was not a gift. It was an insurance program that was supposed to take care of the people who paid into it after they were retired from their jobs. Nobody asked me if I wanted to contribute to the plan. I had three children to support and that little bit of money I contributed each pay day could have gone towards a pair of shoes for one of the children or something more important than the nebulous thought I had, at that time, that I would ever be old enough to collect on my contributions.
Social Security is a right. According to my Webster’s, a right is that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees or moral principles, etc.
Now, can the people who are so anxious to salvage Social Security please remember— you may be floating in a cloud of denial that the day will ever come when that monthly check you were promised will be your lifeline to food, clothing and shelter, but, believe me, it is possible. Life has a way of hitting you where it hurts sometimes.
When you’re young, you can’t imagine getting so old you need a pick-me-up, but ask your parents or grandparents if they could manage without that check to help them. It was supposed to be an insurance policy guaranteed by our government, so we have no reason to feel guilty for receiving our checks.
That’s what “insurance” is for— when we retire. The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) promised us that.
Vivian C. Nelson
Long Beach
