Atlas Shrugged?

This presidential campaign has focused a great deal of attention on entitlement programs and parasites who expect big government to meet all their needs. First, it's interesting that both Social Security and Medicare are referred to as entitlement programs. I don't know about you, but when I started working, I was told that the deduction for Social Security was to pay for my retirement. In fact, the deduction was for FICA, which stands for Federal Insurance Corporation of America (note the word Insurance). Also, FICA benefits come out of everyone's wages, and everyone who has a recent work history is entitled to collect these benefits upon retirement whether they had average annual income of $35,000 or $350,000. And as far as Medicare is concerned, Medicare Part A for inpatient care only is given to everyone who gets Social Security. If they elect Part B coverage for outpatient care, they pay a monthly premium, and for part D coverage that they are required to buy into, that premium is also deducted. Somehow, I fail to understand how if paying into Social Security premiums while you're working and then collecting benefits after retirement (or disability) means you qualify as a person receiving entitlements, but if you put that same money into an IRA or 401k account while you are working, you are considered a responsible person planning for your own retirement. And if you use the money that you pay out of every paycheck for your Part B and Part D Medicare premiums to set up a medical care account or purchase private insurance, you are considered a responsible planner, while if that some money goes toward your Medicare premiums, you are receiving benefits through an entitlement program. Remember, these options are identical for the working rich as well as the working poor. This all reminds me of Ayn Rand's book, "Atlas Shrugged". For those of you who have not read the book, it is the story of the few men and women who are the true makers and shakers of society - those who create huge manufacturing empires, or are responsible for creating and maintaining huge transportation and industrial complexes. They become overwhelmed by the demands put upon them by government to provide for those who do not have these talents, but who feel they are entitles to all the some benefits, and are willing to have those benefits provided, so they basically drop out of society, and focus their attentions an doing the kinds of things that really satisfy them, and as a result, industry, transportation, and ultimately pretty much the entire infrastructure of the country breaks down. The first, and maybe the second or third time I read this book, I was very sympathetic, because no matter what these movers and shakers did, more and more demands were put on them and more and more people claimed more and more in benefits. I knew that this kind of society was not my concept of ideal, but I was having trouble finding the fallacy in the positions that the author was taking It wasn't until the last reading that I finally got it. In some scenes, especially when everything was pretty much going down the tubes one of those movers and shakers was on her way to the train for what would be its lost intercontinental trip. She stopped on the way to talk to a couple of average people just doing their job and hoping for the best, and it hit me that the author had totally overlooked the great majority of people who are not the most talented. As I remember, one of the people teh heroine spoke to ran a news/magazine shop such as you see in the malls, or on many city streets, and the other was a mechanic who was going over the train with an oilcan in hand, checking to see that all mechanical and safety requirements possible were checked and attended to even though he no longer had access to the correct materials to do the job properly. I realized that by polarizing society as we are, especially during this political campaign, many candidates are trying to focus the voter's attention only on the well-to-do and the people that they are labeling as parasites. They totally overlook those that will never be able to enter that truly well-to-do class, but who work on to the best of their ability to keep things oiled and operating properly in our country. I guess it's going to be up to us at the voting booth.