Ron Paul does take social security. I don't know when exactly the clip is from, but the post is new. This is very unflattering for Paul.
When pressed on this, Ron Paul goes on to make one point, then loses the plot. His point is that S.S. is a system built so that one must use it like the highways, fed res sys, post office, etc.
Paul could have said, "the government owes it to me since I paid in all my life," but he choose instead to search for a way to justify it.
Bummer.
He also didn't return his Congressional salary, right?
The keyboard is mightier than the gun.
Non parit potestas ipsius auctoritatem.
Voluntaryism Forum
What Autolykos said. In other words, he's given a lot more to the tax payer than he has taken from them and none of his congressional colleagues can compare.
Since he has a social security card, it would probably cost the government more money if he returned it anyway.
I feel like you guys are searching for justification just like he did. I am not against him taking it as I said in the OP he has paid into it his whole life. I just wonder why he doesn't own up to it.
It is just a different checkmark on a paper that is filed either way...
Um, so what?
Paul lives a real human life and lives pragmatically within it just as we all do. We have to pick and chose fights. He is not some spirit / idea just floating around out there.
Frankly it chincy journalism like this:
Paul is, of course, not the only conservative to benefit from government programs that he or she opposes. But his crankish view of the Constitution has brought him to the conclusion that Social Security is altogether unconstitutional, which also hasn’t stopped him from collecting benefits.
That really pisses me off.
Or even when I see "professional academic" libertarians make apologies for libertarianism off a practicing political libertarian because he doesn't conform to a chincy aesthetic.
Either way to live such a "pure" life one would be killed and / or abandoned pretty quickly in life - and if the didn't they would probably be just another fashionable idealogue.
It's just best to focus on the structure of things, how people are addressing actual structural issues, and how engaging people are engaging others with the important issues and facts at hand. I really don't get the libertarian Paul haterade, other than that is what I expect from the leisurely class of "intellectuals" (both professional and amature) as the "barbarians" sully their esoteric Platonic musings. Life is messy
"As in a kaleidoscope, the constellation of forces operating in the system as a whole is ever changing." - Ludwig Lachmann
"When A Man Dies A World Goes Out of Existence" - GLS Shackle
Either way to live such a "pure" life one would be killed and / or abandoned pretty quickly in life - and if the didn't they would probably be just another fashionable idealogue propped up by bored and boring people to amuse their tastes and fashions at the moment.
Congrats, you got past the double post filter.
You are against prisons. You are imprisoned. Prison rule is that you got to be in your cell between 22:00pm and 6:00am to sleep. You do so, does that mean you endorse prisons.
Of course I understand that this is something he could have avoided and let's him look like a hypocrite.
Torsten:You are against prisons. You are imprisoned. Prison rule is that you got to be in your cell between 22:00pm and 6:00am to sleep. You do so, does that mean you endorse prisons.
No. Complying with the prison rules means you prefer doing so over being punished in some way by the prison officials for not complying.
No one answered my question. Did Ron Paul keep his Congressional salary or did he return it?
Did Ron Paul keep his Congressional salary or did he return it?
He may have. I think he does every year.
Torsten:You are missing the point. What you say only applies to some rules. I can assure you that most prisoners will fall into the institutional framework and practices in prison without the threat of punishment. Also because many rules are simply common sense.
Then what's your point? And there's always at least an implicit threat of punishment for disobedience, isn't there?
Torsten:Anyway, let's assume another situation. You are a computer manufacturer, the government decides your industry gets subsidies per computer manufactured. Will you refuse that subsidy, while your competitors underprice you?
I'd say it depends on whether that subsidy would make me a net tax-beneficiary instead of a net tax-victim.
Autolykos:No one answered my question. Did Ron Paul keep his Congressional salary or did he return it?
No, Ron Paul did not return his salary. He has never stated or even implied that a memeber of Congress should be an unpaid volunteer. He has however returned a portion of his Congressional budget to the Treasury every year, and does not participate in/ will not take the lucrative Congressional pension plan.
Walter Block (aka Mr. I would take all the government money I could legally get my hands on):
That's Dr. to you, JJ.
Why to me?
It's just a phrase.
Mr. I would take all the government money I could legally get my hands on
Who wouldn't?
If there is a line for a stand that is handing out ten dollar bills, get in it.
A line for a stand?
A line for a stand 4 munee!~!!~!
Have we considered that libertarians can't get anything done becasue we're ADD?
who's that in your avatar?
John James:No, Ron Paul did not return his salary. He has never stated or even implied that a memeber of Congress should be an unpaid volunteer. He has however returned a portion of his Congressional budget to the Treasury every year, and does not participate in/ will not take the lucrative Congressional pension plan.
A belated thanks for that information, John.
I don't think Ron Paul is inconsistent for receiving Social Security benefits per se. As long as he's not a net tax-consumer, I have no problem with it. Furthermore, the same amount of FICA taxes are withdrawn from people's paychecks regardless of how many people are currently receiving Social Security benefits. Any money taken in FICA taxes that isn't used to pay current benefits is instead used to purchase federal government debt.