The great economist Murray Rothbard (1926-1995), in his exhaustive treatise “Man, Economy, and State,” briefly discussed Social Security (2nd ed.2001, pages 957-58):
Social security confiscates the income of wage earners, and then, most people presume, it invests the money more wisely than they could themselves, later paying out the money to the former wage earners in their old age. . . . Compelling everyone to transfer his funds to the government forces him to lose utility. Thus, even on its face, it is difficult to understand the great popularity of the social security program. But the true nature of the program differs greatly from the popular image. For the government does NOT invest the funds it takes in taxes; it simply spends them. . . . The cash, of course, can be obtained only by FURTHER taxation. Thus the public must pay TWICE for one payment of social security. The program is essentially one of making more palatable a general taxation of lower-income, wage-earning groups.
